Goodbye Apathy
by OmgItsPocky
Summary: Everyone thought he was a troublemaker when he transferred into KonohaHigh. He frowns a lot, never smiles. He's quiet, never talks. He will never let anyone enters his world. Unless you are a girl with short pink hair, that would be a different story.
1. Unmasked

Goodbye Apathy

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, a phone tucked in between her cheeks and shoulder while both of her hand were on the steering wheels.

"Where are you now? Answer me!" Sakura bawled through her phone as she gave a harsh turn to the left of the road.

"Sakur-"

Sakura winced as she could hear a loud crash behind her phone. She immediately screamed for his name again, but all she could hear were some muffling noise.

She bit her lips and stepped further onto her accelerator. Sakura was determined to find Naruto before he was really beaten to death. If that were to happen, she would never forgive herself.

'_Damn you Naruto… why do you always have to get into gang fights and have to make me worry for you?'_ Sakura gritted her teeth, looking at the rear mirror once in a while.

That was when a group of guys in one of the narrow alley caught her attention. She slowly stepped onto her brakes and turned towards the gang that were bashing up someone that seemed familiar to Sakura.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled in her car once again, throwing the phone beside her passenger's seat and started un-buckling her seat belt. There were big and tough guys standing around Naruto, and the blonde was just rolling on the floor in pain.

Sakura widened her eyes and flung open her car door. Without bothering to lock the vehicle, she stomped towards the group of guys and pushed one of the members aside, to only find her blonde friend lying, almost unconscious, on the ground.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sakura scowled, pushing the rest that were still kicking and punching Naruto in his stomach. All her friend did was to cough out blood.

Everyone turned and stared at the small and fragile girl before them. Even though all of them looked menacing and terrifying, Sakura's determination didn't waver, just like her pair of bright emerald eyes that were glaring at each and everyone.

Sakura walked steadily towards her friend as Naruto used all his might to open his bruised eyes as much as he could just to look back at his friend. Sakura ignored the commotion and picked Naruto up, grabbing his arm and placed it around her shoulder, ready to leave as nothing had happened.

"Where the fuck do you think you are going bitch? This guy still owes us an apology for kicking up a fuss in our territory." The man with a black baggy T-shirt shouted, glaring at her with his two beady eyes.

"I don't care who started this or what the hell happened between you two, but you shouldn't hurt my friend." Sakura growled back, looking as furious as everyone that were blocking her way.

"Grab her, we are not done with him. No one is going to leave until both of them die." The most tallest, muscular men stepped forward. He had the looks of a leader, and it seemed that Sakura's theory was right when she noticed everyone was afraid to defy his command that were ordered by him.

Two men grabbed hold of Naruto and pulled the blonde away from her, who was already gasping for air. Sakura was surprised for a split second but she immediatey reacted, wanting to pull him back when another two pushed her onto a wall.

"Let go of me!" Sakura glared at the two, struggling out of their grip.

Both of them just drooled at the her beautiful beautiful slim and curvy body. One even began to touch her hair while the another took her waist.

"Is this hair color natural?" He whispered seductively.

"Shut the _fuck _up!" Sakura narrowed her eyes, turning her head away.

The two members glanced at each other, nodding both of their head in unison. They grabbed hold of her shoulder and yanked her hair, knocking her head against the wall. Sakura bit her lips and swallowed her scream, bearing the pain on her large forehead as much as she could. A huge bruise had formed on her head and all Sakura could do was to struggle helplessly in between the two men. Instead of helping Naruto out, she knew she was actually digging her own graves, including Naruto's.

She closed her eyes in annoyance, recalling the peaceful events that happened before she ended up in a rather dark alley with a few cuts on her arm and her large forehead bruised.

Sakura was having a stroll in the park with a nice-looking guy she met in a restaurant that evening. And all of the sudden, Naruto called her and told her he was in trouble near this area, and so she rushed over.

And the irritating part was, she was hitting off pretty well and the guy was about to give his contact number to her and asked her out for a date again when this got to happen to her.

Not that she's blaming Naruto. But seriously, must all these guys really pick some random person that stepped into their area and beat them up? They weren't the government, they didn't own and freaking territory, so why were they giving so much crap about it? Bullshit.

Sakura lost her patience and clicked her tongue annoyingly.

"Nice looking dress you have, it's a pity that it's ruined." The guy yanked her hair and pulled her forward. She stumbled onto the ground to only be pulled back onto the spot.

The pain she was suffering was all right, but she could not tolerate it when someone was mocking her expensive dress.

'_It's not ruined, you assholes. It's just-'_ Sakura thought to herself as she observed her white spaghetti strap dress and her two pretty light blue high heels. But to her horror of her life, she realized what they had meant.

A blotch of unknown colored paint stain was stuck at the corner of her dress. And the laces were torn and tattered when she had scratched onto the rough surface on the ground.

Oh yeah, when you were in a gang fight, do not wear nice clothes.

The leader approached towards her after dealing with Naruto at one corner. The two-gang members held her still until their leader had approached them to deal with Sakura. Without any acknowledgment to the other two, he went forward and grabbed her lower jaw, forcing her to look into his dull brown eyes. "Bitch. Today is your lucky day, as long as you-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sakura had kindly spitted her salvia on the leader's face. It was sort of Sakura's behavior, she'll never back down, she'll never stooped that low and begged for forgiveness just because of this slight torture. But sometimes, Sakura couldn't set the different situation at different times.

Yes, she could spit at a few girls who were making fun of her best friend Hinata. Yes, she could spit at anyone that tried to hurt her friend; like now.

But seriously, she's not just digging her grave using a shovel, but with a bulldozer.

The leader wiped his face disgustingly with his shirt before widening his eyes threateningly.

"Fuck you…" His tone was low and vicious, as if he was about to kill anyone in sight. But little did Sakura know, the leader actually took out a gun from his back pocket and pointed directly right at her head.

Sakura gasped. The two members that were standing beside pushed her down onto the floor before stepping back. Sakura could have taken the chance to escape, but her knees were wobbly and her nerve systems weren't acting normally.

She had never seen a gun in her life, only on television shows and books that were talking about guns.

Until now…

He put his finger around the trigger, smirking at Sakura who was trying hard not to look afraid. "After you, would be that fucking bastard."

Not allowing her to say any last words, he just goes and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

Sakura closed her eyes as tight as possible. All she knew was that her heart was thumping very fast. But the problem was, she could not feel anything; literally.

"Fuck!"

Sakura immediately flung open her eye, she looked down on her dress and everywhere on her body, but there were no signs of blood anywhere. She looked up surprisingly to find the leader unknowingly on the floor and the gun right beside the trash bin a few meters away from him.

The leader's stomach was facing the ground while his right arm was forcefully pulled back. His wrist was twisted hundred and eighty degrees back. A redhead was grabbing hold onto the gang leader's hand. One of his foot on the leader's back, pushing him further onto the ground while pulling his arm up, twisting his wrist around as Sakura could hear a horrible cracking noise of his bone.

"Fucking let go of me! You bastard!"

Sakura widened her eyes and immediately got up onto her feet. Her eyes were glued to the sudden commotion that was happening in that very spilt second when she was about to get killed.

That redhead saved her life.

"Whoa… nice looking gun here yeah."

A few gangsters were planning to grabbed hold of the gun and took this chance to escape with Sakura as a hostage, but they immediately stepped back when a weird looking blonde approached to the trash bin and picked up the gun, inspecting it before putting his finger in the trigger guard and swing it around playfully.

"Don't do that." The redhead muttered. The blonde just waved his hand at him, continuing doing what he was doing.

"Did you freaking hear me? Let go!"

The redhead turned and gave a nasty looking glare at the leader before slowly twisting his fingers one by one.

"Ow Fuck!"

"If you want me to let go, tell your dogs to put down that girl's friend." Sasori mumbled, glancing at Naruto who was still struggling unconsciously at the corner of the alley.

"Didn't you hear him? Let him go!" The leader yelled at them, glaring at the two-gang members who were confusingly wondering what should they do. But right after the leader shouted at them, they freed Naruto, only letting him to fall onto the ground, unconscious.

"Let go now!" The leader shouted again.

"Not until you let both of them go off first." He added another deal.

The leader just snorted, giving a menacing glare that could kill anyone he looked at.

Sakura understood the meaning that the leader gave and rushed towards Naruto. She picked him up and placed his arm around her shoulder. Sakura just glanced at the entire group before limping out of the alley as fast as she could.

The redhead gave a sidelong glance at the two until they had finally got out of the narrow back-lane. His blonde friend just stood there, enjoying the show, still swinging the gun with his finger.

He finally released the gang leader and all the members rushed to him, picking him up and brushed away all the dirt on his shirt.

"You basta-" The leader turned around and glared at them before he widened his eyes in disbelief. When he was on the ground, it was impossible for him to see the person that was torturing him. And now when he had knew...

The two of them just crossed their arm, slowly approaching them.

"You two... Aren't you from Aka..." The leader was too stunned to continue. He turned swiftly and faced all his members, his tone shaky and nervous. "What the f-fuck are you all d-doing? Get out of here!" He shouted, giving a hesitating glance at the two who were just standing there, observing the gang as they rushed out of the alley.

0o0

Sakura opened the car door uneasily and pushed Naruto into the car before slamming it as hard as possible. Her heart was beating so fast and her shoulders were aching like no tomorrow. She leaned heavily onto the vehicle and all she could do was to take in a few deep breathes before opening the car door to start her car and head to the hospital.

At that moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard not so far away. Sakura jolted out from her thoughts and glanced at the alley that she just escaped from.

The gang were running, a few tripped but they got onto their feet in not time. The leader was already ahead, bustling away.

Sakura was in shock. What on earth did the two strangers that unknowingly saved Naruto and her life did to the group of gangsters?

Speaking of the devil, the two walked out of the narrow alley, not even hurt or scratched. The blonde probably had thrown away the gun and the redhead just put his hands in his pocket, trudging alongside with the blonde.

'_That guy…'_

_'I still owe him a thank you…' _Sakura thought. Without thinking twice, she rushed up to the two, despite her messy attire and hair.

"Wait a moment!" She shouted, glancing at the two nervously.

Sakura knew they were good guys, even though they must have held some authority around here to scare those hooligans away, but they looked much kinder and nicer that the previous gang she encountered.

"Yes?" The blonde grinned, immediately turning around to look at her while the redhead only gave a slight glance behind his shoulder.

"I j-just w-want to know… what's your name?" Sakura stuttered.

"I'm Deidara yeah." Deidara showed his clean set of teeth.

"Not yo- I mean… what about you?" Sakura looked at the redhead.

He looked at his feet, feeling a little bothered by the question. And after hesitating for a second, he turned and finally replied.

"Sasori."

"Sasori…" Sakura echoed.

"Er Saso-" But before Sakura could finish her sentence, Sasori immediately turned back and looked at Deidara.

"Let's get going. We are late." Sasori continued walking, putting his hands back into both of his pocket. Deidara rolled his eyes before following his partner. "We are still thirty minutes early yeah, I don't get why are we so early when no one is there yet." Deidara mumbled.

"Shut up and get going." Sasori scowled.

The blonde just followed and continued babbling non-stop to the redhead, who was not really listening to his conversation at all.

Sakura just watched them until they turned into another corner and disappeared from her view. She remained standing there, still in daze when a thought struck her mind.

'_Damn! Naruto!'_

The clumsy girl turned and rushed back to her car, opening the car door and slammed it shut behind her. She nervously slotted her car keys swiftly and drove off to the hospital as quickly as possible to save Naruto before he really bleeds to death.

And then, it was about a year after the incident. Sakura didn't remember the two S_asori_ and _Deidara_ anymore, not until when her summer break was over and school started again.

"Have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"A new guy; Sasori is going to transfer into our school!"

* * *

Author's Note:

Yosh! Done with the first chapter. Don't worry for those _May I _readers who are waiting for the last chapter, it would definitely be done before the end of February! :D

And of course… Reviews are definitely appreciated!


	2. Dog Abuser

Goodbye Apathy

The crazy rumor was spreading like wild fire. Almost everyone in the school already knew about the special newcomer.

And what a not-so surprise, it was our typical Ino who started it.

"Are you really sure? Where did you get that kind of information?" Sakura raised a suspicious eyebrow. Sometimes you couldn't really trust your best friend who loved to gossip so much since most of the times, half of all the things she spread were hardly true.

"It's true! How can you not trust me?" Ino whipped her hair back and forth. "As a member of Journalism Club. The information I always get is definitely reliable. Doubting me is soooooo wrong, Sakura." Ino gave a proud grin, placing her elbow on Sakura's table and resting on her head on her palm.

Sakura was actually quietly sitting by herself when their I-was-late-because-I-was-caught-in-the-path-of-life; Kakashi-sensei was late for their class. And our know-it-all Sakura was trying very hard to get her eyes off that particular rich-and-handsome-awesome-looking Uchiha Sasuke by reading her book every day. But her best friend, Ino, just had to interrupt her reading, forcing Sakura's table partner; Uzumaki Naruto to change seats with her in order to talk to Sakura.

Their summer break was just over in a blink of an eye. But Sakura hardly even spent any enjoyable moments during her holiday. Time was tight as she had a part-time work at a bakery store almost everyday, not forgetting the usual meetings she had to attend every Saturday in school.

Yes, our poor Haruno Sakura was a student leader of the school.

And she was foolishly thinking that she could have an ice cream at the beach with all her friends when she realized she had barely done her holiday homework when it was coming to an end.

Stupid homework. Stupid meetings. Stupid _everything_.

"I trust you Ino." Sakura calmly placed her book on her table, crossing her leg. "But how do you expect me to believe it when you said that this particular newcomer was previously from Akatsuki boarding school?" Sakura whispered loudly.

"It's really true!" Ino argued back, ignoring a few odd stares that were directing to her. "I believe you heard about the arson a few months back? He's the culprit." Ino lowered her voice, looking around for a while before returning back to face Sakura's shocked face. "And I even heard he kicked a dog when-"

"Ino! The arson that you meant… Was it the Uchiha's warehouse that you were talking about?" Sakura asked worriedly.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Of course it's your stupid crush's family warehouse. Whose else could it be?" Ino gave a deliberate yawn and pointed at Sasuke who was sitting at a corner, listening to some songs on his Ipod.

Sakura followed where the blonde was pointing at before turning her head away, gazing at her closed book. "B-but… how could Tsunade-sama accept someone like him into our school?" Sakura cleared her throat, ignoring Ino's previous comment before looking back at the blonde again.

"If I clearly remember, he was even jailed." Sakura muttered, her pink brows frowning immediately, disliking the thought.

"The gang that were partially involved were all sent to different schools." Ino leaned back onto her chair, sighing "I guess it was to prevent them from committing another crime together." She said aloud.

"Ino. Could you tell me what's his name again?" Sakura asked out of the sudden.

"I thought you wasn't interested?" Ino smirked, answering quickly before Sakura could say another word.

"Sasori. Akasuna no Sasori."

Sakura immediately returned her gaze back to her book.

'_Sasori…'_

"Class." Their bored-looking teacher finally entered the room, bringing a book that was totally unrelated to the subject he was teaching. "My watch was not working, so I was lost track of the time." Even though Kakashi clearly didn't wear any watches at all, he still continued babbling.

"Not only that, there was a cat…"

Everyone jeered as their sensei continued his lousy story. Ino rolled her eyes again, walking back to her seat when Naruto started loudly complaining about her taking his seat.

Despite the noise level and the commotion in the class, Sakura was too absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn't even know that Naruto was calling out for her name several times.

'_Sasori…'_

'_This name… sounds so familiar.'_

0o0

"Click Clack."

The sound of the blonde's high heels clacking on the ground quickly could be heard a few meters away. Everyone bowed as their principle walked briskly passed them.

Sakura was walking up the long stairs, carrying a few books and her notes for her next lesson when she noticed Tsunade walking down the same stairs.

"Good morning Tsunade-Sama." Sakura bowed, clutching onto her books. The principle stopped immediately to the sound of the familiar greeting and gave a glance before making a polite smile back.

"Hurrying to your next lesson?" Tsunade asked, looking at her bright student.

"Yes." Sakura spoke with respect, smiling sweetly at Tsunade.

"You should get back to your class then." Tsunade said, after her student replied with a nod, she continued her way down to the first floor. Sakura could only dream contentedly and admired Tsunade quietly from afar.

But right at that moment, the blonde stopped walking and turned to face Sakura, who immediately jolted from her thoughts as she thought her principle would be reprimanding her for not going back to her class.

"Sasori, hurry up and quit walking like a snail." Tsunade shouted, putting both of her hands at her hip.

'_Sa-Sasori?'_ Sakura screamed in her mind.

_"He's one of the monster in the Akatsuki boarding school."_

_"I heard he would do anything just for money."_

_"He would kill anyone that gets in his way!"_

She turned sharply to watch the said person walking lazily down the stairs.

He was brushing his red messy hair between his fingers, while his light red sling-bag hanging over his shoulder, one side of his shirt was slightly tucked out and the black tie that all the boys wore was slightly out of the way.

"Sasori…" She spoke out loud, enough for only the redhead to hear. He turned slightly and stared weirdly at Sakura with two of his mesmerizing brown eyes for a while.

Unknowingly, Sakura's heart skipped a beat and her palms became sweaty suddenly. Her heartbeat was racing and there were butterflies in her stomach. Sakura blinked quickly, ignoring all the facts that were happening to her but before she knew it, Sasori continued walking down the stairs without giving her a second glance.

Tsunade had already walked further up ahead, while Sasori was still walking slowly behind her.

Sakura remained staring at the redhead's back until it was blocked behind a few walls.

'_Sasori… He's Sasori…'_

'_A guy from Akatsuki…'_

Sakura shook her head furiously, refusing to think about it anymore. As long as they never meet again, it would be fine.

She began trudging back to her class without bothering to remember about the redhead any longer.

0o0

Talk about… Luck.

"So… Erhem… This is our newly transferred student, Akasuna no Sasori."

Everyone was silent, Ino and Sakura gave a glance at each other before returning to look at Sasori. He still looked exactly the same as what Sakura had seen him that morning. The only thing that changed was the side of his shirt was tucked in. Perhaps the work of Tsunade's nagging.

He just gave a brief glance at the entire class and a few started talking among themselves.

Especially the girls…

No one, not even Ino, had expected Sasori to be their classmate. They thought he would just be their schoolmate, passing by each other along the corridor and pretended that they did not know each other. But who could have thought…

"Do you want to make a quick self introduction?" Kurenai looked at the redhead, trying very hard to smile.

Sasori was standing right in front of the class and everyone was looking back at him. A few girls were already mesmerized by his charming eyes that totally stolen their heart.

All the murmurs in the class started to get louder, and Sakura could pick out "Akatsuki…Monster…Killer…Theft…Evil…" All Sakura could hear was just negative things about the newcomer and nothing else.

But almost all the girls forgotten about what the rumors had spread about him, they were just so excited because there's another cute and handsome guy in their class other than Sasuke.

It seems Sasuke had finally met his match.

Sasori just shrugged, shuffling his feet once his eyes lay upon an empty seat right at the corner of the class. All eyes were on him until he went to sitt on his seat. He then turned to stare at everyone who was caught looking at him.

Sakura glanced quietly across the room, watching him as he took out a book and placed it on the table before gazing outside the class, not even bothering to listen. But it seemed that the class was still excited and bewildered that the newcomer actually came to their class until the end of the year, perhaps.

Kurenai banged her table for attention before everyone quietly took out their books for revision. Their teacher began reading the history of ninjas and a few were yawning already. But despite this entire thing happening around her, Sakura still continued looking at him. Sasori.

'_What's this… feeling?' _Sakura clutched both of her fists, staring at her lonely new classmate sitting alone by himself.

'_Why do I feel… sad? Dejected? Awful? And very very miserable?' _Sakura softened her bright green eyes.

"Sakura. May I know what's the answer for question 3?" Her sensei asked, looking at her and expecting the answer almost immediately from one of the brightest girl in school.

"C." She mumbled, and Kurenai smiled contentedly before resuming to her lesson.

Sakura turned back to looked at Sasori once again. She slowly turned her head and tilted it to one side, pretending to be reading her book on her table. She turned slightly a bit more and looked up.

She immediately stopped breathing when she realized the redhead she was staring all the while was looking at her with an odd and indescribable expression. Sakura turned her head so fast that her necks almost snapped into two. She took in a deep breath and widened her eyes in shock.

"He sees me, he just noticed me looking at him! What am I suppose to do?" Sakura mumbled worriedly, covering her face with both of her hands.

"Sakura-Chan, are you alright?" Naruto asked caringly.

"I'm fine." She muttered back immediately.

Naruto pouted, returning to drawing another mustache for a random man in his history book.

Sakura didn't dare to turn back anymore, even though she had the urge to do so every second. She didn't know why, but she felt that looking at him might be able to find the answer why she was acting so weirdly around him.

Even though Sasori had arrived in school and became Sakura's classmate, the rumors stills goes on, and somehow every time someone spread something, they would add another stupid stuff to make it more ridiculous.

"I've seen him! Did you? He's a redhead!"

"Have you seen him? He looks totally like a loser. He has long red oily hair!"

"Let me tell you if you hadn't seen him. His hair is long and grey in colour, the worse part, it's so stinky, smelling and super oily that no one dares to go near him."

Sakura heard tons of these stupid things, but she was just too tired to correct them. Even if she did, would they even care?

And to say the truth…

Sakura liked his red-crimson messy hair. But of course, she kept this tiny secret to herself.

But the problem was, when everyone knows that Sasori was from Akatsuki boarding school, they immediately judged him as the bad guy. And when all the Sasuke's fan girls knew it was the redhead who burnt down the Uchiha's warehouse, the girls never forgave him.

Despite how much Sakura liked Sasuke, she wasn't that stupid to join those fan girls' gang and doll themselves up like bitches.

However, that wasn't the main problem Sakura was facing, it was when Tsunade called her to the school office on the third day Sasori had joined her class.

"You want me to what?" Sakura almost shouted, only to invite stares directing to her outside the office through the glass window. She was standing right infront of Tsunade's broad desk, unable to understand every single word that Tsunade had asked her to do.

"Yes Sakura, I know it's tough. But you are the only person that can help me." The blonde sighed heavily. "I heard from many students and even teachers asking me why did I allow him to join our school. And I'm guessing you are wondering that too." Tsunade raised her eyebrow while Sakura didn't answer.

"If I were to tell you, Sasori wasn't in the wrong and he didn't set the Uchiha's warehouse on fire, would you believe me? Or him?" She asked, setting both of her arms on her lap.

Sakura widened her eyes and stared back in shock at her. "What do you mea-"

"Anyway Sakura." Tsunade cut in, waving one of her arm around. "I want you to take care of him on my behalf, that's one of the many reasons why I have him in all the same classes as you." Tsunade said.

"Bu-"

"I know all those rumors spreading around, don't think I'm staying in my office, idling around and drinking sake all day." The blonde remarked. "But I'm awfully proud and glad to say that you weren't part of it, that's also one of the many reason why I trusted you this mission in changing Sasori's indifference towards others and everyone's point of view towards Sasori."

"I know. But… Me alone? I-"

"I trust you Sakura. I've put all my faith in you. You can do it." She gave a smile and nodded. But Sakura still couldn't trust her ability. She's not some superwoman or anything, how could she change a guy if he didn't want to cooperate with her?

Would those fan girls listen to her if she asked them to?

Would Ino stopped babbling all those gossips if she asked her to?

Would everyone even listen to her? Just this once?

It's totally impossible!

"But… Lady Tsuna-"

The phone of her desk immediately rang, interrupting Sakura before she could continue. Tsunade picked up the call and answered, and immediately, she went into a deep conversation.

"I'm very sure. Yes. According to the school polls…" Tsunade began busily flipping through a file while speaking to the receiver. Sakura could only sigh, bowing politely before walking out of the office door.

Sakura took all the time she had to head back to class for her last lesson, but the bell immediately rang before she even reached her class.

Everyone began running past her after their class were dismissed. She kept her head low as she walked sloppily back to get her bag, perhaps going back home to sleep. Today's a very tired day, after all.

"That's him, he's here." One said.

"What about the long, oily grey hair that you mentioned?" Another argued.

Sakura blinked, raising her head to find Sasori briskly walking down the long corridor, his hands in both of his pocket and his hair was still in a mess. Although his red hair totally contrasts with his white uniform, the most attractive part of him was not just the hair, but also his pair of chocolate brown eyes.

Sakura could just fell to her knees and get mesmerize by his eyes forever. They were beautiful and totally alluring. Even though it was hard to read Sasori's emotionless expression he had everyday, Sakura somehow could understand his thoughts and feelings just by looking at his eyes.

Not that she kept looking at it... Sakura frowned, shaking her head. She _is_ actually looking at it. But whatever…

But if he could get rid of the frown he was always wearing, they would be extremely perfect.

Sakura stared at the redhead as he walked past her without bothering about anyone around him. He continued his fast pace before walking slightly slower down the stairs to avoid tripping over when he walked too fast.

She tilted her head, watching until Sasori had disappeared down the steps. She began thinking about what Sasori always do when he's in school.

He would always come to class with that same bored expression. After that, he would begin his sleeping routine for the entire lessons before rushing home (Probably home?) immediately after school. And then the next day, the process repeated.

That would be the one of the interesting facts on Sasori's life. Yawns…

So, how was she going to change _him_?

Sakura then looked at everyone who were laughing and chatting in their own groups. Perhaps another rumor about Sasori was going to start again from all those evil looks that everyone was exchanging.

And how was she going to change_ them_?

Sakura shook her head, walking past a few people as they greeted each other by smiles. She slowly walked back to her class to find mostly everyone out of the room, only the usual gang that she was part of standing at the front of the class.

"Sakura, you are back. What did Tsunade asked from you?" Ino asked, glancing at her pink-haired friend who tiredly sat on a chair far away from her gang.

"It's about Sasori. He-"

"Sasori?" Neji frowned, as if it was a taboo word of his.

"That horrible-dog-abusing guy?" Kiba snorted.

"What? No, it isn't like wha-" Sakura's word were immediately cut off again.

"Sakura-san, did he gave you trouble? That's why you were called to her office?" Lee began cracking his knuckle. "I shall show him my power of youth and…"

Seriously, could everyone just let her finish what she wanted to say?

"…And with my power of youth, I shall defeat him!" Lee grinned, showing his fist.

"Lee, he didn't do anything bad. He wasn't even that bad at all. He's just-"

"A monster! Rawr, Rawr, Rawr!" Naruto began acting as he placed both of his arms in the air, swinging it like a zombie. Everyone began laughing as Sakura stared in shock at everyone.

They were so… mean…

Right at that moment, Hinata began tapping on Naruto's shoulder gently as the blonde looked weirdly at her.

"What is it Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"H-He's there." The Hyuuga heir pointed. Their laughter quickly died down and everyone began following the direction where Hinata was pointing.

Sasori was standing at the back of the class, looking over at the group. They were too stunned to speak, only thinking if the redhead would hunt them down and kill them tonight.

Sakura noticed the sudden silence and turned around to look at what they were staring, only noticing the redhead standing right there. In just the next two second, he regained back his composure and approached his own desk, only to take his wallet that was found on the chair before walking out of the class like nothing had happened in the world.

"Did he hear us? I hope not... It would be very troublesome if he does…" Shikamaru yawned tiredly.

Sakura could somehow understand why she was feeling miserable and extremely upset when she just looked at Sasori for the _first time _when he came to her class.

Sasori must have known something like this was going to happen, all those teasing and horrible comments about him. Her heart ached when she even think any further.

And furthermore, Sakura was feeling very guilty when she realized she had actually thought negatively about Sasori previously when she knew he was jailed and that he was from Akatsuki boarding school. She was in the wrong also. Sakura shook her head sadly.

Tsunade was right.

No one would believe him if he said he wasn't the culprit for the arson, since everyone's judgment on him was already fixed.

_He's a bad guy._

"But then, what we said was true-" Before Naruto could continue, Sakura stomped both of her feet and slammed her fist on the table right in front of her.

"Don't you think all of you are a little too horrible?" Sakura bawled angrily. Glaring at every single one of them in the class. Everyone was shocked as they stared at the most popular girl in school, standing in the middle of the room. "How much longer are you going to continue this? Put yourself into Sasori's shoes." Sakura frowned threateningly.

Sakura was wrong, totally wrong. She thought that all her friends would be reasonable and stopped the others from going around doing such awful stuff but instead, they were actually adding fuel to the fire.

Even Temari, Neji, Tenten… Forget about Ino, how could she be missing this opportunity when they were gossiping? But… This was going too far, even Hinata was tagging along.

"Don't you find him scary Sakura-san? I heard he-" Lee stepped in once again and was about to continue but Sakura immediately cut his speech off.

"Stop all these sickening _'I heard this, I heard that'_ stuffs! From all those stupid rumors that you guys are spreading, did you ever use your brain and think, if all these things that you were all spreading were true? How can you judge him because he just once jailed before, or if he was from Akatsuki before?" Sakura glanced at the entire group, who were looking at each other uncertainly.

"I know, you must be thinking why am I defending him? It's not that I like him or something, but it's because he's my classmate, our classmate. So please stop this childish behavior and spare a thought for him." Sakura waved her arms in the air.

"But Sakura-Chan…" Naruto stepped out, wanting to reach out for Sakura's arm when she gave a furious glare, slapping his hands away.

"I'm going to prove it to you guys…"

Everyone blinked, staring at Sakura, confused.

"…That Sasori isn't such a person that all of you think he is." Sakura stepped back, grabbing her belongings and ran out of the class, only leaving the entire group in silence.

* * *

Author's Note:

No offence if you have a best friend like Ino. :x So… No bashing is needed XD  
Reviews are totally welcome and appreciated!

-pocky


	3. Pink

Goodbye Apathy

"Wait!"

Sakura ran faster, ignoring everyone who was looking at her.

"Wait! Sasori!"

Sakura could hear all the gasp that her schoolmates made but Sakura ignored all of it, stopping just in front of Sasori who had stopped unexpectedly when he heard his name.

"Sasori…" Sakura panted and bended slightly, trying to catch her breathe. Sasori frowned, looking at her impatiently.

"What is it?" He spoke coldly.

Sakura widened her eyes, straightening her posture and looked into Sasori's cold and distant eyes. Sakura lowered her head, feeling extremely guilty.

"I would like to apologize on behalf of my friends for their retarded behavior." Sakura said, enduring herself not to look at Sasori and the others standing around them.

Everyone was looking at the two, standing right before the gate of their school. They began muttering within their groups, pointing at the pink-haired girl who was still lowering her head, waiting for an answer.

"What they said was true, so why bother apologizing?"

Sakura raised her head suddenly, looking at Sasori who was just staring ahead. "It isn't true. They were wrong. You aren't like that." Sakura replied quickly, paying no attention to the others who were pointing out her weird behavior.

"I… Even if it was true or whatever, I still want to apologize for my friends' behavior." Sakura added panicky.

"Like I said, you don't have to apologize."

"But I'm your classmate! We have to take care of one anther when someone is in need. And-"

"You should just go back to your friends. Don't bother to treat my anything like a classmate or friend. I don't need any. As long as you mind your own business and don't get involved in my life, I would be really thankful." Sasori muttered, trudging out of the school gate without saying another word.

Sakura just stood there, totally dumbstruck and shock to say anything.

0o0

"Thank you very much. I'll pick it up in a day or two. Thank you. Bye."

Sakura frowned, looking at her mother as she placed her phone on the restaurant's table, returning reading her newspaper. "Pick up what?" the daughter asked, listening to her conversation while reading a book that she hadn't finished because of those stupid rumors that were bugging her in school.

"My car. I had it for maintenance as the steering wheel had a little problem. I can pick it up today but I'm busy later."

"I can help you. You can do your stuff and I can pick up the car for you." Sakura insisted.

"I'm not going to trust you in taking good care of my car again." She said, raising an eyebrow. "You were caught using my car without any driving license. Because of that, I have to rush off to the police station right before an important surgery."

"Mum. Why do you have to bring that up everytime since last year? I was using the car to save my friend. You know Naruto? He's in trouble. Didn't you say we need to help a friend whenever they are in need?" Sakura argued.

"I don't care." The older Haruno muttered, looking behind her newspaper. "I'm not trusting you with my car, ever." She added.

"But it's not like I'm going to drive and save my friend again." Sakura sighed.

The older woman ignored her, continuing to read her own newspaper before Sakura spoke again.

"What are you busy with anyway?"

"I'm going to visit an old colleague. She just gave birth a few days ago."

"Babies? Can I go? I really want to go!" Sakura said excitedly while her mother gave a weird stare. "Sure. If you want." She shrugged.

"Let's take the car, maybe you can teach me some driving skil-"

"We are taking the cab." Her mother said, looking at her watch and wondering when their food would be serve.

Sakura sighed.

0o0

"I'll get a vase." Sakura volunteered, putting the flowers that they had bought on the table as both Haruno entered the ward.

"Thank you Sakura." Her mother's friend said, while hugging her small infant. Her mother went over and smiled at the baby while Sakura grinned, putting down her school bag and went out to find a vase.

After going around asking a few nurses, she finally found a rest room for the visitors. She went in the room, bending down and started searching the vase in the cabinet liek what the nurses had said. Finally, she found the one and only last clean and white porcelain glass.

But right at that moment, another person entered the room, yet both of them were oblivious with each of their presence. He grabbed a newspaper and headed out, only after Sakura had straightened her back and had a vase in both of her hands.

Sakura noticed a figure walking out as she looked up in respond, only noticing a redhead walking briskly down the corridor. An image flashed across her mind after studying the features of the redhead.

'_Sasori!'_

Sakura rushed out and hurriedly followed the presence until he reached and entered the ward.

She took in a deep breath, recalling the figure that walked in. "What if it wasn't Sasori?" Sakura wondered aloud, releasing her grip around the door handle, but then she tightened it again.

"Whatever, I'm going to risk it. I have to make sure who is that guy, if not I can't sleep tonight."

Sakura slowly pushed the door, only glancing in the ward from the outside. Her bright green eyes sparkled in surprise as she witnessed the person that she had seen along the hospital corridor, reading a newspaper.

"There's an earthquake happening in Japan, resulting a few thousands deaths and, injuries and missing people." Sasori read out loud rather monotony.

"How terrible…"

Sakura blinked, surprised to hear a second voice coming from the same ward. She stepped quietly into the ward to see whom Sasori was speaking to. And to her astonishment, it was an old lady in her early seventies sitting on the hospital bed, a few large machines beeping continuously by her side and a few needles attaching to her veins.

Sakura widened her eyes, her grip around the white vase tightened. She don't have the courage or ability to say anything from what she just witnessed, but the movement led Sasori to turn his head towards Sakura's direction.

She almost slipped the vase from her hand but she immediately caught it due to her fast reaction. Sasori placed the newspaper on his lap, frowning very unhappily.

'_No use running.'_ Sakura thought, only stepping into the ward and waved at the redhead and the patient he was speaking to.

"Hi!" Sakura said calmly, knowing that Sasori would never forgive her for interrupting his personal life. Just a few hours ago, he was telling her not to get involved in his life, now she's standing right in front of his face, invading his private and precious moments.

Sasori was quiet all the while, and only the old lady speaks.

"Are you the new nurse that they are talking about?" She asked, smiling back at Sakura. The pink-haired student could only blink, looking at her school uniform and back at Sasori before returning her awkward gaze at her. "Actually I'm…" Sakura looked at the vase in her hand before happily placing it on the small table beside the bed. "I was er- wondering if you need a vase." Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"No thank you. We don't have any flowers dear." The old lady replied, only giving a small and weak smile.

"What are you doing here?" Sasori finally spoke, looking at her irritatingly.

Sakura tensed visibly after hearing Sasori's slightly frustrated voice. He didn't seem to have the mood to argue either. Giving his look he was wearing all the while, he must be suspecting that she was following his way here.

"I- I was just passing by to visit my mum's friend when I met you. I wanted to give you a 'Hi' but you went in here. So I-" Sakura stopped, before looking away and at the ground.

"I'm sorry." She only gave a small pout.

"You two know each other?" The patient asked, rather puzzled at what was going on in her own ward.

Sakura looked up while Sasori sighed, ruffling her messy hair. "She's my classmate." He mumbled, slightly uncomfortable about it.

"I see. I'm Sasori's grandmother, Chiyo." Chiyo smile sweetly. "Sorry about my grandson's behavior. He isn't such a person like you think, but you will get use to it."

"I can understand." Sakura cleared her throat before continuing. "Nice to meet you Lady Chiyo. I'm Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

Sasori stood up from his seat after putting away the newspaper. He grabbed hold of Sakura's wrist and pulled her out of the ward. Shocked, and not to mention embarrassed, Sakura watched Sasori's warm and smooth hand around her wrist. It gave her a weird tingling feeling that she felt many times whenever Sasori was near.

But it quickly ended.

Sasori closed the door behind him and stepped back, a few feet away from her and the hand contact they had broke off immediately when he released his grip.

"Did you forget what I said? Like a few hours ago?"

"I know, but I thought I was seeing things when I saw someone who looks like you, and it was really you." Sakura pointed out.

Sasori rolled his eyes, before glaring at her. "You-" He muttered dangerously and gave a huge frown.

"-should mind your own business." Sasori continued, only looking away when Sakura was showing her obvious hurting-look on her face. Sakura bit her lips and blinked away the tears that were about to flow down her cheeks. She's really angry but she's not going to cry so easily, especially to a man that always pissed her off because of his rudeness.

"You know what? I was just trying to care like a friend. Wait… No... I was just doing what I'm suppose to do." Sakura recalled what Tsunade had told her before going on, despite knowing what her words and action that she had done would lead to.

"Who are you to me anyway?" Sakura jabbed her finger into Sasori's chest. "I shouldn't have care. I should have joined the evil side and mocked you with my friends. You are just one ungrateful person I met along with those bunch of idiots I met in school."

"And I even thought you are different from the others." Sakura bellowed. She actually meant in from the bottom of her heart. She really thought Sasori would be different from the others, but then…

"Forget it. Whatever I said wouldn't go through your mind anyway. Not that I'm calling you stupid, but how would someone so emotionless understand a single word I said?" Sakura rolled her eyes before storming off.

"Goodbye! Forever!" Sakura shouted across the corridor. A few nurse were telling her to quiet down but she ignored all of them.

Sasori just stood there for a few seconds after Sakura shouted those words at him.

'_Emotionless…'_

He turned and entered the ward in silence.

0o0

"What's wrong with you?" He mother nudged her, while giving a desperate smile at the other visitors as she stormed angrily back to her own ward.

"Nothing mom. I've just seen something that made my eyes irritated." Sakura huffed angrily, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Then what about the vase?" She mumbled under her breath.

Sakura widened her eyes, before looking down at her hands; the vase she was holding a while ago was missing.

'_No… I'm not going back there.'_

"There weren't any more vases to spare." Sakura replied in hesitation.

Her mother was about to complain again when her friend interrupted her.

"It's alright Haruno. The flowers are pretty even without the vase." She said.

Sakura's mum could only sigh, giving a glance at her daughter before continuing her chatting with the others. Sakura just sat on a chair beside the baby's cot; deep in thought.

Chiyo and her seemed to hit off pretty well, but Sasori just had to cut off their conversation. And since Chiyo was his grandmother, she must have known a lot of things about him. Sakura straightened her posture but immediately slumped back to her seat.

Right… She had already decided to give up helping Sasori already, so why was she even trying to understand him better?

Sakura continued to ponder for a while, only turning around to play with the baby a few times. Even though Sasori might seemed cold and emotionless, he could still be listed under the filial category.

But if he had such loving grandmother, what on earth had made him into such a cruel and emotionless bastard?

Sakura frowned, leaning against the back of her chair uncomfortably. Something didn't feel right.

_"He isn't such a person like you think."_

'_Like I think? It wasn't like I misjudged him or anything, but look at how rude and unthankful he was. If I knew it, I shouldn't have apologized to him in front of so many people.'_ Sakura snorted to herself before shaking her head. She just set her bright emerald eyes at the small infant eyes and started smiling at the baby in the cot.

What was his real personality then?

Anyway, she shouldn't be thinking of all these nonsense now. She should be thinking of the upcoming exams that would be happening in a month or so.

She sighed inwardly, before continuing to hold the soft and cute baby's hand. This actually helped her to get rid of all the thoughts she had in her mind now.

But one thing Sakura was definitely sure of is, he wasn't a monster or someone evil like what everyone said he was.

To Sakura, he's just a jerk. A stupid, rude and ungrateful jerk.

0o0

School sucks.

Sakura groaned again and again after every lesson finished. Tsunade was right; she really did put Sasori in the same class for all her periods.

They didn't talk for a few days, and both of them were pretty happy about it. No annoying pink-haired brat and no redhead jerk for Sakura to punch in the face.

But not for long…

_4 Days of ignoring that stupid redhead._

"Let's head out to the new restaurant just across the road!" Naruto pointed.

"It looks pretty good." Sai added.

"Come on Forehead, it's been many months since you treated us dinner."

Sakura still hangs out with her group of course. But indeed, lesser rumors were spreading about Sasori and Sakura was awfully glad deep down. It might be the work of Ino that lesser of these nonsense were continuing.

Sakura sighed, looking at all of them. Sasuke and Naruto were best friends, but Sasuke just like being alone then joining their group, and Sakura was pretty disappointed when Sasuke rejected her offer to go to the mall and hang out.

He _is_ Sasuke Uchiha after all.

All of them entered the restaurant happily without fail since it was Sakura's treat. Sakura rumbled through her purse for a moment, feeling a little glad that her mum just given her next allowance for the week and her boss had just given her pay just a few days ago.

They sat down in the middle of the long table and began looking through the menu, deciding what to eat. Sakura just sat there, observing them. She's just going to have salad for dinner.

"I want this chicken chop with fries!" Naruto yelled.

"I want Pasta!"

"I want Pizza!"

Everyone shouted like a group of kids and Sakura was desperately asking them to quiet down. She just looked randomly for a waiter and waved her arms, pointing at the menu with another.

The waiter slowly approached them as they didn't take any notice of him. He took out a small notepad and a pen, standing there and ready to get all the orders thrown at him.

"I would like to have…" Sakura raised her head and looked at the waiter before stopping in surprise.

There was the redhead who she had been trying to avoid for days, standing there in a waiter uniform.

Sasori seemed to have waited pretty long enough for his customer to continue so he looked up, to find the girl sitting on her chair looking back at him in his uniform.

"Sasori!" Ino yelped in surprise, looking up as she noticed how quiet Sakura had been. Everyone looked at the redhead as he stood there rather uncomfortably.

"What would you like to order?" Sasori said, looking back at his blank sheet of paper. Sakura immediately scrambled back to the menu and scanned through the things that her friends wanted before saying it all at once.

Without repeating their orders, he just turned and trudged off to the kitchen.

"Sasori is working here. Oh my God." Ino fanned herself with her hand. "And he looks hot in that uniform." She added unnecessarily.

"So what? I can be even hotter in that uniform. Right Sakura-chan?" Naruto bragged.

Sakura didn't notice all her friends arguing among themselves. All her attention was just fixed on the redhead who was attending to other customer.

He really did look hot in that uniform though.

_10 Days of ignoring that redhead._

"Why can't Pein buy the cake on his own yeah?"

"Just get on with it. There's a bakery shop over there."

"Dingling!"

The bell chimed brightly as Sakura stood up from her chair and placed the latest manga that she had been reading for a while on the table. She quickly put on the white apron and approached to the counter, giving her very best to all her costumer.

"Welcome!" Sakura said merrily, but her smile immediately faded when she realized whom her customer was.

Damn, was God playing with her?

"Sasori, you think Konan likes blueberry or strawberry yeah?"

"I don't know, blueberry?"

Sasori stood at the corner of the shop, both of his hands stuck in his jeans pocket while he lazily leaned against the wall, breathing in the smell of the freshly made cookies and bread.

The redhead had felt someone looking at him for quite a while so he looked up abruptly, only staring at Sakura who was still staring at him in amazement.

Great, just when he was enjoying his weekend without seeing this pink-haired girl wherever he goes.

"Hmmm… Then does Konan like blueberry or chocolate? Chocolate seems nice yeah." The blonde pointed at one the cake behind the display cabinet.

"Chocolate then." Sasori said, breaking eye contact with Sakura almost immediately. "Hurry up with it and get a cake Deidara." Sasori said impatiently, looking at the clock on the wall.

"I would like the choco-" Deidara stood up, pointing at the cake that he choose before widening his aqua blue eyes in surprise, noticing the uniquely pink-haired Sakura standing in daze.

"Hey, it's you!" Deidara shouted happily, as if he just won a lottery.

Sakura blinked, regaining her composure and gazed at the blonde who looked almost like her love-to-gossip best friend. "H-Hi? Do I know you?" Sakura said in surprise.

"We would like this chocolate cake miss." Sasori stepped forward, jabbing the glass window impatiently. Sakura nodded without a word and took the cake out, putting it into a styrofoam box.

"You don't remember me? I'm Deidara yeah! You remember him? He's Sasori!" Deidara pointed at Sasori dumbly. "We saved you before, with your blonde friend that day yeah." Deidara remarked.

"Did you?" Sakura glanced at Sasori and back at the blonde, giving a skeptical look. "I don't know actually, did you mistake someone else? And how many candles do you want?"

"20." Sasori said.

"You know, the gang that almost fire his gun at you down the alley? It was us who saved you yeah." Deidara said excitedly as if he was really the one who saved her when it was just Sasori who did the job.

Sakura placed 20 candles and a plastic knife into the box and wrapped it with bright pink ribbons. She placed it at the counter and Deidara continued to follow her all the way as she started jabbing into the cashier register.

"It would be 25 dollars." Sakura said.

"Only in this world do you have pink hair and bright green eyes. It's you yeah. Try to reme-"

"25 dollars." Sasori slammed the cash on the counter and took the cake. "Let's go." The redhead said, pulling Deidara who was struggling under his strong grip. "The birthday bash is not going to start until another 2 hours, what's with the rush yeah?"

Sasori pushed the door and barged out of the store, before pulling the blonde across the road. Sakura could only just stare in space for a while before laying her gaze on the money on the counter.

_"I j-just w-want to know… what's your name?" Sakura stuttered._

_"I'm Deidara yeah." Deidara showed his clean set of teeth._

_"Not yo- I mean… what about you?" Sakura looked at the redhead._

_He looked at his feet, feeling a little bothered by the question. And after hesitating for a second, he turned and finally replied._

_"Sasori."_

Sakura blinked, finally understand what the blonde was talking about. That day when she had a date with an anonymous guy, that day when she borrowed her mother's car to save Naruto, that day when she met Sasori for the first time. She clearly remmebered how it happened now. That redhead saved her from getting shot in the head. If it wasn't for him, she probbaly would be lying in a coffin and in a grave that was dug up by a bulldozer.

Now she understood... That was why she had this weird feeling she couldn't shake off when Sasori transferred to her school.

And since that blonde could recognize her so easily like in a bakery store, it would be even more easy for Sasori when he saw her remarkably attractive pink hair in school almost everyday.

Argh! Haruno Sakura you idiot forehead!

Sasori's not the stupid, rude and ungrateful jerk. It was you Sakura!

* * *

Author's Note:

Thanks to the countless support you all have given me! I promise I'll turn this story to my next best! Reviews are greatly appreciated


	4. Chemistry

Goodbye Apathy

"S-Sakura!"

The said girl blinked, turning to the direction where she heard her name. There was the Hyuuga's heir, running towards her with a slip of paper in her hand.

"Hinata? I thought you had went home with Neji." Sakura wondered out loud.

"I wa-wanted to pass this to you. The n-new manga you have been waiting for a month was just r-released." Hinata said excitedly as she handed the paper to her pink-haired bestfriend.

"Oh my Kami!" Sakura began jumping as she took the paper, her finger caressing the address of the bookstore and the receipt right behind it as she kissed it gently right afterwards. "How did you get it?" Sakura asked curiously.

"My sister was looking at it online w-when I happened to notice it. I'm gl-glad I did." Hinata smiled.

Sakura went forward and gave a huge tight hug before letting go, giving a wink at Hinata. "Thank you so much!" Sakura said excitedly, looking at the paper once more. "I seriously owe you this one!" She gave a wave at Hinata before skipping happily out of the school, ready to take a convenient bus to the bookstore at the mall.

She was actually intending to find Sasori to apologize to him, but those distractions she was getting were preventing her from doing it. Like when Ino had bought some apple crumbled pie to share during lunch peroid, and when Sasuke was actually sitting right in front of her during history lesson, and when- Well… we all know everyone have a life instead of stalking someone just to apologize to him.

Her precious manga first, she would deal with that apologizing matter later.

0o0

"May I know where do you get these manga?" Sakura approached to a lady behind a desk handed the paper to her. But before she went to inspect what books Sakura was searching, she pointed at the corner of the other end of the store.

"This is the non-fictional section. The manga section is at the other corner."

Sakura bowed quickly before running excitedly to get the manga Hinata had helped her ordered. She had been waiting for a month for the book to be out and she couldn't wait to get the book and read it on the way back home.

"Excuse me-"

Sakura approached towards the desk, but immediately stood there, dumbstruck. Her hand clutched hard on the receipt and it nearly tore into two pieces.

There, was the redhead in his bookstore uniform, arranging the books according to its general section. He had stopped doing his things and turned around, inspecting his customer. But to his surprise, there stood quietly was his uniquely pink-haired classmate.

"I-I Can I have the m-manga? This is the receipt." Sakura handed the receipt to Sasori as he took it carefully. He inspected the title of the books for a while before turning around and started searching.

It took him awhile, but Sakura didn't mind. Finally, he took the three books that Hinata had preordered it for her and placed it on the table.

'_He does look cute with that high collar black t-shirt.'_

"You just have to pay the rest of the amount at the cashier counter." Sasori said, leaving Sakura standing there in daze.

"Sasori, I need your help over here." A muffled voice shouted behind those tall looking shelves.

Sasori turned, sighing inwardly before walking around the counter and approached the voice.

Was it pure coincidence or was God trying to make fun of her? He had completely ignored her, but however, she didn't really care. She was just thinking of this funny question.

'_How many jobs does he actually have?'_

Sakura stared at the books in her hand, before giving a glance at a pile of newspaper at the stand right beside the bookstore.

She couldn't help but grinned.

0o0

Sakura have plenty of time left before she needed to pretend to be ironing the piles of clothes left at home when her mom came back from work.

The pinkette stepped down the bus as she watched the huge building down the road. She started walking slowly steadily while the orange evening sun bathed her skin while fishing out the newspaper that she just bought from her bag and smiled sweetly at the headings.

"Japanese solider found 4 months old baby girl found alive in earthquake."

That was some good news to talk about.

Sakura folded the newspaper back into her bag before whistling down the empty street just to keep her mind occupied. But not long after hearing some quick footsteps behind.

Sakura blinked, stopping her whistling and narrowed her eyes. She hurried a pace a little, just to keep it unnoticed. But the stranger that was following her fastened his pace as well. Now she's hundred percent sure that this person was following her. She started screaming in her head while looking her right and left to see if there was any passer-by to approach for help.

Sadly there was none.

And if she clearly remembered, she did come across a news report in the newspaper about a flasher craze going around the town.

Great, just what Sakura need right at this moment down this creepy and empty street.

She wanted to turn around so much, but what if the rapist just pounced of her like that? She then noticed an alley as she clutched on her bag till her knuckle turned white.

She's definitely ready.

After making a quick turn, she held her breath, raising her bag and only strike when the figure approached towards the alley. She jumped forward and started hitting with her bag.

"Who the hell are you, get off me!"

Strangely, the figure didn't even do anything, it was Sakura who started jumping on him and whacking him, and she was shouting at him to get off her?

"What? No, it's me, it's me yeah!"

Sakura use all her might, using her bag and whacked the stranger, instead, her useless strength seemed to be brushing off dirt from the stranger's clothes instead of beating him.

Guess she had to learn some youthful skills from Lee these days.

"It's me. Look at me yeah!"

Sakura stopped her hitting and stepped back a few steps, clutching onto her bag tightly like usual. She glared at the shadow before straightening her posture, eyes widened and her face turned bright red.

"It's me, _your life savior_ yeah."

"Dei- Are you Deidara?" Sakura gasped, not sure what was the blonde's correct name.

"You got that right." He smiled, or perhaps a seductive smirk that made Sakura froze.

"I- You- Why did you creep behind me? I could have just give you a punch in the face a few moments ago." Sakura gulped, only to receive an unconvincing look on Deidara's face. "Well, I still haven't known your name yeah. So I don't know what to call you at all."

Sakura gave a few tentative steps forward, not sure if she should trust this guy. "I'm Sa-Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

Deidara smirked again, nodding his head. "Well, are you going to the hospital?" He pointed at the building. Sakura seemed to get the point and started walking out of the alley while he followed suit.

"Yeah." Sakura replied.

"You sick?"

"No, I'm visiting… Er..." Sakura began hesitating as she looked uncomfortably at the blonde. Wasn't it weird when you were walking alone with a funny looking blonde who didn't seem to give a shit about it even when the two of you hardly knew each other?

"Visiting someone." Sakura finished quickly. Even though he's Sasori's friend, she must still be cautious about him. First, she didn't even fully know Sasori yet, and furthermore... his friends? What if they were some psycho who pretended to be friends at first... and do something terrible later?

Sakura shook her head inwardly. How could she think like that? It's extremely rude and... horrible! Even though she heard crazy rumors about the school, Deidara still looked pretty friendly though.

"Well, that is pretty nice of you yeah." Deidara said.

Although Sakura found the journey to the hospital rather long, they reached the entrance sooner than she thought. Perhaps it was because she was briskly walking throughout the entire thing while Deidara was just following beside her without breaking a sweat.

They entered as the electronic door closed behind them; they looked at each other before wordlessly pointed at the lift. Deidara pressed the button for the lift and waited while Sakura just patiently stood behind him.

After the lift door opened to the same floor, they began walking out together, yet none of them spoke a single word. Both of them thought the other one would actually go the other direction, but in the end, they ended right outside Chiyos's ward. Both of them blinked as their hands brushed against each other when they reached out for the handle at the same time.

"You… in?" Deidara asked, right after when Sakura immediately brought her hand back to herself, like she had touched a hot boiling kettle. The problem was that her face was burning red for some unknown reason.

"Y-Yes." She stuttered.

The blonde shrugged, entering right after she finished her sentence, only to be greeted by the old lady surprisingly.

"Deidara, and… Sakura?"

Both of them stared at each other before Sakura turned away first. They pretty much knew what was going on since it was pretty obvious by now.

"Pretty much to summarize everything, I do know Sasori actually…" The girl said, glancing at Deidara when he gave a curious expression towards her.

0o0

"I know right… It's really funny when you think it that way."

Sasori froze. The voice was far too familiar to mistake it as anyone else. He pushed opened the door to only be greeted by two new visitors in the ward.

"Sasori you finally came." Chiyo smiled, greeting her grandson. "You could have just stay at home and rest, Sakura and Deidara are much better at reading newspaper than you do." She patted the newspaper on Sakura's hand.

Sasori was already holding onto the same newspaper that Sakura brought, with another uniform that Sakura hadn't seen him wearing before. He entered the room lazily before closing the door, a little pissed at both of his _friends _when they were actually grinning from ear to ear after hearing the comment given by _his _grandmother.

"Ouch." Deidara made a fake hurting sound. "But I'm totally on your grandmother side yeah." Deidara chortled.

Sasori glared at him for a second before turning his glare at Sakura, but the surprising thing was that, he wasn't glaring so intensely at Sakura than Deidara. He seemed to have softened it for her sake… maybe?

"I-I was just visiting Chiyo-BaaSama! You don't have to look at me like t-that." Sakura stuttered.

"It's really fun to have her around, Sasori, you don't have to look at my visitors with that glare of yours. I am glad they actually came anyway, you always dropped by quite late." Chiyo said, looking at the redhead as he sighed, admitting defeat without another word and grabbed a chair at one corner, sitting a distance away from the blonde and the pinkette.

"I think we should go now." Sakura said, placing the newspaper on the table. "It's pretty late now anyway." Deidara followed Sakura's action and they both stood up in unison. She shyly walked around the redhead while the blonde only made the difference by giving a playful punch on Sasori's shoulder.

"Do drop by when you are free." Chiyo gave a soft whisper before Sakura nodded secretly back.

"Goodbye." Sasori gave an exaggerated wave once the blonde and the pink-haired girl walked out of the ward.

"You don't have to treat that poor girl like that Sasori." Chiyo spoke right after the two of them left, shaking her head as she was disappointed with Sasori's action.

Sasori shrugged, leaning against the chair lazily and took out his newspaper, reading it on his own.

"She's a very nice girl. These days, who would bother to visit a sick old lady like me? Furthermore, we are unrelated at all."

"You should treasure her before she gets away." She added

Sasori put down his newspaper before giving a bored stare. "We are impossible. The end." He raised his newspaper and began reading again.

"She's a very sweet girl. Why are you bothered by it when she's around you? I don't believe if it was just because she was annoying to you. You seemed to see her as a special person than other people."

Sasori made a snort.

"Special as in, good at talking non-stop and annoy the crap out of you? Then she must be the most special of all people I know."

"Ironically, you still get along well with Deidara don't you?"

"He's a guy, whereas Sakura's a girl." Sasori put down his newspaper on his lap and continued his argumentative speech. "Woman always do useless stuff and it bothers me a lot."

Chiyo gave a soft chuckle before looking at his grandson once more before. "Soon, you will definitely regret saying that. Perhaps you might find something beautiful within her."

Sasori didn't speak. He just stared at the newspaper blankly, deep in thought.

0o0

"How do you two even be friends? You two are complete opposite."

Both of them exited the large building as they slowly walked towards their destination.

Deidara raised an eyebrow, looking at her for a moment before he reply.

"I'm a very talkative person in fact." Deidara crossed his arm, nodding his head, slowly approached the well-lit bus stop. "Most of the cool guys in Akatsuki just couldn't tolerant my babbling nonsense sometimes yeah. But Sasori isn't. He's the… the quiet type."

Sakura nodded, indicating that she was listening before Deidara proceeded. "You may think Sasori is one hell boring person who loves to stare you to death. But instead, he's a pretty good listener if you don't know. He may be pissed at me sometimes 'cause I tem to talk too much nonsensical stuff or when I was debating about something that he disagreed with."

Sakura blinked, registering what Deidara had said. She never thought Sasori would be such a person the way he described. Sakura always thought the redhead would be irritated if she were to talk about stuff that she would be glad to share with Sasori about.

"Deidara."

"Yeah?"

"How many jobs does Sasori have?"

Deidara stared at her for a moment, but didn't question why she asked. He raised both of his hand and started counting.

"I guess there is four. Being a waiter in two different restaurants on consecutive nights, bookstore assistant every afternoon and working at the funfair making balloons a few days a month.

"What… That's a little bit too much." Sakura almost shouted.

Deidara shrugged. "Last time he has 6 job yeah. I guess he really can't cope with it and just leave his two other jobs; a car mechanic and the pizza delivery job."

Sakura frowned disapprovingly, biting her lips as she began thinking. _'And to add those pressure given to him in school...'_

Deidara quirked an eyebrow, mentally counting the steps he took after walking out of the hospital. "He has to pay for the medical bill you see. It isn't free yeah."

"What happened to Lady Chiyo anyway?" Sakura asked out of curiosity, raising her head to look at Deidara who was slightly taller then her.

Deidara looked down at his feet, hesitating to speak for a moment. But he slowly raised his head, a soft look masking his depressed expression. "She has cancer. I guess it's the last stage." Deidara mumbled.

Sakura halted and stayed rooted to the ground. Deidara stopped his steps and slightly turned around, gazing at the innocent girl with both of his aqua-blue eyes. The girl lowered her head in silence before slowly walking forward to be by Deidara's side again.

"But- But-" Sakura looked away, trying as hard as possible not to let the tear that was forming in her eyes to flow. "I thought you two were best friends? Why aren't you helping him?" Sakura almost yelled, pointing an accusing finger at him. She didn't know why she reacted so crazily but she just did. Maybe in just these few hours spending the time with the lonely old lady in the hospital was a little bit over emotional.

Just by remembering those crazy machines standing around Chiyo was going to make Sakura cry again.

"It's not like I'm not helping yeah." Deidara still maintained his usual volume even though he feels like shouting as well. "We helped. The rest of us did. We all reached out to help, but he refused stubbornly yeah. He's always like that. That independent bastard yeah." Deidara huffed angrily, kicking a stone in his way.

"Th-Then what about his studies? Does he even have time to revise his work? He was always sleeping in class." Sakura thought aloud.

Deidara rolled his eyes and made an angry scoff. "Study? What is that? He is one smartass among our gang and he's just like a walking Wikipedia. He knows everything in this world. If I have to compare my studies to that smarty-pants, I must admit that I am one idiot." Deidara said, slumping his shoulder stressfully. Judging by those eye bags under Deidara's eyes, he must be burning midnight oils to study just to catch up with his best friend.

"Anyway, why are you so openly telling me about Sasori?" Sakura asked suddenly. The mood had pretty much lightened when Deidara straightened his posture, a geeky smile plastered on his face.

"Nothing, I just thought you would like to know more about him yeah."

"W-What?" Sakura stuttered, finally reaching the bus stop as the walked around it and took a sit on the long bench. The blonde sat closely beside Sakura as she tries to ignore how little space they had in between each other.

"You two are friends aren't you? It was a big surprise when Sasori even talk to a female in his new school yeah."

"You can't really say friends though." Sakura gave a stop sign. "I'm just trying to care like a normal person would do, but he's just unwilling to give a shit. Moreover, if you are saying that he talks to me, I would preferably think that you are just referring to those sarcastic talks he always gave me." Sakura grumbled, punching lightly at her bag. "I think he hates me."

All of the sudden, Deidara burst out laughing, shocking Sakura as she jumped a little, staring horrified at the blonde who was clutching his stomach, hitting his lap and continued laughing. Sakura was fuming, she was telling him how she felt and this was what she got.

"I'm sorry yeah." Deidara rubbed a tear from his eyes. "You look really cute when you said _I think he hates me_. Why would you even think he hates you yeah?"

Sakura glared at Deidara before looking away, blushing at the comment given by Deidara earlier. "Well, that's what I thought. I'm sorry if that made you laugh that hard." Sakura crossed her arms, giving a snort.

Deidara gave a small smile before shaking his head. "He doesn't hate you. Like I said, he's just really stubborn. He doesn't want anyone's help, neither does he want anyone to pity him." Deidara's voice started to become a little serious. "He must have thought you pitied him because everyone picked on him just because he was a criminal, and right at that moment when he was just being a little sadistic, you go over and tried to make friends with him. The only thing that came to his mind is that you must had pitied him so you were making friends with him."

Sakura paused for a moment, looking back through her memories. Indeed, the first time when she interacted with him for the first time was right after when her friends made fun of him. The second time was because he probably thought she was stalking him right after the incident before.

Maybe... that's why he always found her a little irritating and wanted her to mind her own business.

"You have to prove it to him that you aren't really pitying him and just caring as a friend. Just by verbal words won't do anything yeah. All he trusts was just your actions, what he sees with both of his eyes and not what people told him; even when it was true or fake. He rarely trusts people that much yeah."

"You guys really know each other well, don't you?" Sakura tilted her head to one side while looking at Deidara.

"Of course! Not just me, but the rest of the gang were awesome. People were kinda afraid of us like that time when I saved you." Deidara grinned triumphantly.

Sakura couldn't bother to correct his mistake again, but before she could continue her long and enjoyable talk with the blonde, he stood up suddenly, only turning around after realizing the bus that was approaching was his one to board.

"My bus is coming." Deidara looked down the road as the vehicle slowly drove to the bus stop. He quickly turned and reach his hand out to Sakura, surprising her.

"Give me your hand."

"Eh?"

"Just do it yeah."

Sakura did what she was asked to, only surprising her when Deidara took her hand and unknowingly fished out a pen from his pocket, scribbling down some number.

"Sasori's number is right above mine.

"Wait! What-"

But before Sakura could continue, the bus door already closed when he board it. Sakura stood up and was about to call out for him again but the bus just sped off, leaving her alone at the stop with the two numbers on her hand, wondering what she should do with it.

0o0

"Hello Sasori!"

The redhead was slotting in some of his heavy books into his locker as he turned around slowly before turning back again and continuing doing what he was doing. Sakura scowled, walking up to redhead.

"Can you stop bugging me? I prefer to be alone." Sasori grumbled, lifting his bag and hang it around his shoulder after slamming the locker shut.

"I like to stick with people who always ignore me."

"Then stick with other people who are free like you and ignores you as well. I bet there are tons of them."

"Anyway…" Sakura rolled her eyes, walking with Sasori as he began his slow walk back to their class.

"The reason I was looking for you weren't because I want to tell you I like to annoy you. I just want to tell you that Lady Chiyo is often lonely in the hospital." Sakura said. Sasori was not that stupid and not aware of this, so he let her continue.

"I know you have some jobs to do, so perhaps I can help out a little." Sasori immediately stopped on his tracks, Sakura stopped along with him. She didn't care that both of them were in the middle of the hallway, blocking several people who were rushing back to class. She was glad Sasori bothered to listen to her for once.

"I can visit her a few days per week after school until you came back. Homework is no problem for me. I can do it at home so you don't have to worry." Sakura gave a pat on his shoulder. And for once, he didn't ask her to get away from her.

Sasori just gave a few innocent nods as he looked down the hallway, frowning slightly before looking at Sakura. But before he could even say anything, Sakura put up her hand, stopping Sasori from continuing.

"I won't tell anyone, my lips are sealed. But remember, I'm not doing it for you." Sakura put her hands on her hip before adding. "So you don't have to thank me at all."

"Sakura!" Ino waved, but right after she seen Sasori, she quickly put down her hand, only looking at the two with her bright turquoise eyes from a distance before whispering to Hinata who was conveniently standing by her side.

Sakura waved back casually before turning back to Sasori while she clutched her books near to her chest. "Anyway, I shall see you later." Sakura smiled sweetly at Sasori before skipping back to her group of friends, who were tugging her back to the classroom.

Sasori didn't wave back or said anything. He just stared at the pinkette from afar until she had made a turn at the end of the hall.

"She's really… weird."

0o0

"Hey, your boyfriend is late." Ino said, jabbing her thumb into the direction of an empty seat. Sakura sighed, looking at Ino. "I don't want to hear anything ridiculous from you, Ino." Sakura muttered angrily.

"I'm not talking ridiculous stuff now." Ino nudged her before standing up.

"Sakura, it's Sasuke." Ino whispered, walking around the table and pulled Sakura up from her seat.

"What are you doing Ino?"

Sasuke was walking into the class with his few other friends; Suigetsu and Juugo. They rarely interacted with Naruto and Sakura's gang but she knew they were pretty friendly and nice too.

Ino pushed Sakura forward, awkwardly stopping right in front of them, blocking their pathway as she stared at the Uchiha who was staring at her, rather uninterested in what was going on. "Hi Sasuke!" Sakura bit her lips after the words escaped her mouth. She didn't have a choice but to say those two stupid words, but then there were his two other friends as Sakura realized her stupid mistake. "And Suigetsu and Juugo! Hi!" Sakura smiled again, giving a stupid wave.

"Hey chick, you look pretty today." Suigetsu gave a wink while Juugo elbowed him. Sasuke didn't say anything but only walking around Sakura after giving a nod that Sakura barely notice.

"He's trying to keep his cool, don't worry. I think he likes you." Suigetsu added, giving a thumbs up while Juugo pulled his friend aside and dragged him back to their seat, giving an over-apologetic look to Sakura.

Ino walked over sadly and gave a pat on Sakura's stiff shoulder. "Listen to Suigetsu. There's hope in every-"

"Ino! You made me embarrassed in front of Sasuke _again_, and probably it would be another famous topic going around later in the canteen." Sakura went back and slumped back on her chair, her face red and her back of her neck grew warm as she began to hear some sniggering behind her back.

"Hey Sakura, it's no big deal." Ino mumbled while Sakura took some book from her bag and slammed it on the table, covering her ears with both of her hands. "We are in the same class Ino, if you are too blind and stupid to know that." Sakura looked over at Sasuke, who was talking to his partner about the school homework.

"Sakura!"

Sakura raised her head, looking at Kiba who was with the rest of her friends. He gave an upside down thumbs up and shouted. "You failed Sakura." Right afterwards, everyone was laughing even though Sasuke could probably heard it louder than anyone in the class.

"Kiba you idiot!" Sakura shouted back, before turning around and faced the white board, messing up her pink hair.

"Cool it Sakura, I'm sorry. I won't do that every again when Sasuke is around." Ino sighed before giving a small chuckle. "You already experience that many times, no big deal having it one more time."

"Yamanaka In-" Sakura wanted to scream out her lungs but then, their sensei had already entered the classroom with the books that he was ready to teach with. Sakura sighed while Ino turned around and went back to her seat.

Of course, who would bother to care about her feelings when they thought she was used in getting mocked every time when Sasuke was nearby? Everyone actually thought that Sakura was already cool about being teased so badly... Although it seemed that only the redhead who was watching the commotion at the corner of the classroom didn't think so at all.

0o0

"Hey Sakura!" Ino waved, the rest of the gang were already seated in the canteen, waiting for their friend to come over and join them for lunch.

Sakura was holding onto the sandwich she had brought from home and glanced at the group when she heard Ino calling out for her. Ino and the rest were smiling as if nothing had happened. She stared at her food before turning her heels and walked out of the cafeteria and to the small garden right outside the building, ignoring the calling out of her name over and over again.

She walked slowly around the garden, taking small bites on her sandwich. No one bothered to came over to ask her what happened, no one bothered to care for her. Those two years she's been suffering when she was in school. No one knew how terrible she felt. Not even Ino... and probably not even Hinata.

Probably... that's why she felt extremely terrible when everyone were mocking Sasori back then.

_"What a bitch. So what if she is popular? That doesn't meant Sasuke will like her."_

_"I bet she is using her popularity to spread all these things. What on earth is she thinking? Sasuke won't like her."_

_"Bitch."_

_"Bitch."_

_"Bitch."_

"Stop it guys!" Sakura yelped helplessly, covering her ears and closing her eyes shut as she bent her knees and squatted right beside a yellow daisy flower.

Sakura slowly opened her eyes, those image when she remembered the girls from the Sasuke's fan-girl club went and threatened her, and even went as far to cut her long and beautiful pink hair that she had kept since young just because they were jealous of it.

She never told anyone of the incident, not even her mother and the rest of her friend. The last thing she needed was a war between the two largest clique in school just because of her. She just came up an excuse that she needed a haircut because her hair was getting a little tangled.

She really missed her long hair.

Sakura turned and stared at the flower. She put her wrapped sandwich into her pocket while squatting on the ground.

"Why don't they understand me? I just want someone who I can really really trust to talk with. I admit I do like Sauske, but it was just a crush... why do they have to do this to me?" Sakura said miserably. She rubbed her eyes triedly before covering her whole face.

"What should I do?"

"..."

"..."

"Did they tease you that bad?"

The familiar voice struck Sakura and her emerald eyes widened. She stood up and used all her courage to turn around, expecting the one and only Sasori who was standing there, staring at her a little unusually weird.

Of course, she's talking to a flower. That's pretty… crazy for a mature guy like Sasori to witness such thing.

"I-I anyway… Hi!" Sakura waved at Sasori while he stared at her, a huge bored looking expression stuck on his face. And somehow, Sakura was fighting back not to just walk towards him and give him a huge punch to the face.

"Alright Sasori…" Sakura put down her hand, looking as bored as Sasori as she added a soft sigh behind. She raised her head before biting her lips. Practically, Sasori seemed to be extremely patient today. Building up all her courage, she opened her mouth and spoke.

"I know this is stupid, but could you be just like that flower over there? I-I just need to tell someone all of my feeling without being judged, mocked and all." Sakura blurted out, embarrassed with the fact that she was being pathetic in front of Sasori, since he probably had witnessed the scene earlier in the class.

Sasori was silent; he didn't speak but he just stared at the pinkette for a while. After listening to the silence for a long time, Sakura seemed to get the hint as she sighed inwardly, only giving a small smile at Sasori.

"It's alright. I think I shouldn't bug you anymore. I must be some annoying brat like you always said." Sakura rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"You might think I'm just an attention-seeker but then... I don't want all those unnecessary attention that I hate. I just want someone to acknowledge that I'm here, giving me some respect as a person and not ignoring me even when I'm trying my best just to show that I don't really care…"

_"Dad, look. I drew this." The little Sasori raised his drawing of his own mindset of his family. His father and mother were both holding his hand side by side, smiling as if they are heading off to somewhere fun. Sasori looked up to find his father ignoring him, only talking continuously into the receiver._

_His father with the same hair colour as his son only glanced at Sasori when the child stood there for a couple of minutes, waiting very patiently just for his father to look at his picture he drew._

_"I'm sorry Sasori, why don't you show it to your mother? I think she will love it. I'm busy for a moment." The much more older redhead said, ruffling Sasori's hair before continuing his talk into the receiver._

_"It's alright Dad." The child said, clutching tightly onto his drawing._

_It was the same; both reaction and response from his mum and dad were the same._

_He doesn't need anything; All he wanted was just his parent's attention… just someone…_

"… Whom I can talk with." Sakura looked down, brushing some crumbs off her skirt. "Well, you would probably say Ino and Hinata. But I'm afraid. I'm afraid they would judge me the way they would when I told them all my really stupid and childish secrets.

Sasori widened his eyes ever so slightly. His lips slowly parted but no words came out.

"It's alright. But please forget everything that I just said and you just heard. Don't tell anyone."

Sakura turned and began walking back to the cafeteria. How stupid was she? She just had to show such her weakest side to Sasori when he must be mocking her behind her back as well.

"You can talk to me if you want."

The girl almost tripped onto nothing but she managed to save herself before she landed flat on her face. She spun around like a ballerina and stared in shock at the redhead who was staring in space, both hands in his pocket and a lazy look still plastered on his face. Sakura somehow thought she was just hallucinating about the words she heard a few second ago.

"R-Really?" Sakura asked.

"Until the bell rings." He added, looking back at Sakura. His face was still impassive and Sakura didn't know was it true or was he just teasing her because she was talking to a flower a while ago. She gave a small frown before asking again.

"I thought you would ignore me and just walk away, I decided not to be the loser so I walked away first. B-But I didn't know you would… well, willing to be my confidant." Sakura said surprisingly, having her arms flying everywhere hysterically while speaking.

"There's about ten more minutes before the bell goes." Sasori sighed, looking at Sakura who was still a little shocked at Sasori's sudden change of personality, but she immediately crossed her arms, staring at Sasori straight into his brown eyes for a whole minute, without speaking a word. He expression remained the same as well, but he was starting to drum his finger at his side when he was waiting rather impatiently for Sakura to start.

"I hate those teasing. I want them to stop."

Sasori looked at the pink-haired girl weirdly. Firstly, he was a little surprised when Sakura just spoke during the long and stupid silence. Second, since he was still fairly new in school, he still hadn't really grasped at those ongoing rumors in school.

"So you really like him."

Sakura's thought was interrupted as she stared at Sasori, mouth open and eyes wide. "I-I might l-like him, but that doesn't meant I'm the only victim to all those teasing!" Sakura shouted, shuffling her feet.

"You have a pretty huge bunch of friends. Why bother talking to-" Sasori gave a sidelong glance at the small white flower on the ground before looking at Sakura slightly weirdly. "-A flower?" He cleared his throat before adding again.

"And me?"

Sakura turned slowly, giving a small smile as she put down her arms. "I trust you, and that flower." Sakura said truthfully.

"And like I said, my friends are pretty childish, and a little immature, if you actually still doesn't know." Sakura shook her head before looking at Sasori. "I told Ino that I liked Sasuke before, and 'BOOM!' In just one day, everyone knows about it." Sakura slammed her forehead, muttering a few curses.

"I really feel like strangling Ino that day. All those teasing never stop, and you can't believe it. The rumor lasted for TWO WHOLE YEARS!" Sakura screamed, pulling the tangled of her hair.

"From that day onwards, I don't really tell all my secrets to her anymore. But then, I think she doesn't mean it. She have a sort of terminal disease of can't controlling her mouth sometimes." Sakura brushed her hair through her fingers. "And If I were to tell anyone I know too, I bet they would judge me."

"Like that time when they know I like to watch Anime and read manga. And they thought I was some sort of freak. Cool people don't like Anime of course. But only Hinata doesn't judge me like that. She often recommended me some new and nice manga when her younger sister told her about it." Sakura gave sigh of relief, smiling at the thought.

"But I didn't dare to tell Hinata about this, because… Naruto often pressured her in all sort of stuff. And I didn't want this thing to slip out of Hinata." Sakura said, looking at Sasori if he was listening.

Indeed, he was listening pretty attentively than usually in class.

"Then, why do you trust me?" He spoke.

Sakura didn't tense at the question, but she just casually shrugged. "I don't know either. I just feel secure when I'm talking with you. And I know you wouldn't judge me on things you heard or know." Sakura said, relying on the things she heard from Deidara yesterday.

But all those words that escaped from her mouth was pretty surprising, she didn't know why she said all these, but she just really felt this way.

His face remained impassive but his eyes didn't. His brown eyes seemed to show a little surprise and shock; he seemed to like the comment given by Sakura.

But before Sakura could speak another word, the school bell chimed, surprising her for a moment, but she quickly gained back her composure. Well, it was a deal that she could talk about her problems until the bell rings, and she's going to keep her promise.

"Sasori, I want to say sorry and thank you."

"…"

"That time, the very first day when we met, you saved Naruto and my life. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't even be hear talking to that daisy over there." Sakura pointed at it innocently. "And I was a little mean to you that time at the hospital. And even after that awkward session with you and Deidara, you actually bothered to approach me when I was a little… down. I'm really sorry." Sakura smiled softly at Sasori.

'_It's weird though. Today was the first time I ever interacted and talked to him so long for the first time.'_

"Anyway, what's the next class anyway?" Sakura asked, breaking her own thoughts while listening to the second time when the bell chimes again.

"Chemistry." He replied monotony.

Sakura sighed before walking back to the cafeteria, but before taking another step, she stopped and turned around.

"Want to go back to the class with me?"

Sakura just took it as a yes when he followed closely behind her back to their classroom.

* * *

Author's Note:

Tumblr totally got me. I was so addicted to that monster for a while. That geography test about Monsoon winds is really killing my brain cells too :\

Reviews are definitely appreciated!


	5. Shut up and Driveeee

Goodbye Apathy

Sakura entered the hospital with a small bouquet of flower and the daily newspaper she just bought at the stand. The special scent that every hospital had entered her nostril as she breathed in heavily. She loved the smell, as if she was familiarized with it.

With the flowers in her hand, she pressed the lift button and the door opened, only closing right after she pressed which floor she was going. She took the newspaper out from her bag and began reading some interesting news printed on the cover, thinking which news should she share with the old lady she's visiting.

As the door opened once again, indicating she reached her floor, she stepped out and only to welcome the quiet atmosphere along the corridor. She clutched on the newspaper and began slowly approaching the ward that she's been going these past few days.

But just a few meters away from the ward that she was heading, a few doctors were rushing out of the operation room just beside it.

"We need more anesthesia for Chiyo. The operation would be much longer than we thought." The doctor said to a nurse as she rushed off to somewhere in a hurry.

Sakura's eyes could only widen to its maximum just by hearing the familiar name. She glanced around to find the exact nurse that was listing to the doctor's instruction as the young student grabbed the nurse's wrist and stopped her before she went into the operation room.

"May I know what happened?" Sakura scowled angrily, yet worried at the same time.

"Chiyo's blood pressure decrease to a very dangerous level. We are trying to save her now if you don't mind." The nurse glowered equally angry at Sakura, shrugging her tight grip and pushed the operation door to enter.

Sakura stepped back; she took in a large breath and exhaled only a little.

"What-" Sakura gasped, stepping back until she fell onto a row of metal seats that were settled outside the operation room. She placed the flowers and the newspaper quietly beside her before messing her hair.

"What should I do?"

She started looking around panicky, as if there would be an answer if she were to look around. But all of the sudden, her mind become blank and it only replay the scene when Deidara was talking to her before he boarded his bus.

_"Sasori's number is right above mine."_

The pinkette widened her eyes immediately, snatching her bag and started finding her phone. Clearly after Deidara was gone, she saved both numbers into the phone before she actually lose it when there was some sort of friction to remove the pen ink on her hand.

She scrolled down the list, finally finding Sasori's name right above Sasuke. She quickly jabbed her thumb onto the green cell phone button on her phone and waited as patiently until the receiver picked up.

"Hello?"

"Sasori! This is Sakura, there's an emergency!" Sakura screamed, despite the fact that she fully knows well that she shouldn't be shouting in the hospital.

"Y-You…" Sasori's voice sounded surprise, clearly remembering that he never gave Sakura his phone number before.

"Granny Chiyo…" Sakura gulped before continuing. "She's in the emergency room now! It's better for you if you rush here immediately."

There was a long and painful silence before the receiver cut the call. Sakura was taken surprise by it, intending to call Sasori again but she stopped herself.

She knew he's probably running to the hospital now.

Sakura clutched onto her phone, biting her lips while staring at the operation sign that was lit up above the door.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

She didn't know how long had she been sitting there, closing her eyes and looking down while waiting patiently for either Sasori to come or the doctor to get the hell out from that room and tell her what was going on.

Sooner than she thought, she heard loud footsteps running down the hallway, she slowly raised her head and directed it to the figure that was sprinting towards her direction.

"How is she?" Sasori almost yelled down the corridor, standing right in front of her and looked down at the pinkette while trying to catch his breathe.

Sakura shook her head and stood up after Sasori had stepped a few steps back just to give her space. She softened her gaze right afterwards and pointed at the operation room.

"She's still in there." Sakura mumbled. "When I came here, all the doctors where rushing out and in the operation room, and after getting one of the nurse to stop just for a second, she told me that Granny Chiyo had a sudden drop in her blood pressure." Sakura stood firmly, looking for any expression on Sasori's face. He was still wearing his uniform, and was soaked in sweat. Clearly, he didn't take the bus here; he must had literally run here from the store to the hospital.

Sasori stepped a few steps forward and slumped onto a metal chair right beside where Sakura had just sat on. He dropped his bag and placed both of his elbows on both knees, forming a bridge with his fingers and laid his chin on top of it.

Sakura gazed as the redhead calm yet gloomy expression. His eyes clearly show his worries for his only kin as he began to bit his lips. From the very first day Sasori transferred into her school, this was the first time she even seen Sasori's so frantic and… scared.

Sakura didn't speak. She stood forward and sat right closely beside Sasori, both of them didn't mind about the little space they had in between them.

She looked at the operation door once more before closing her eyes shut again. The girl then raised her hand and clapped it two times softly, before bringing it closely to her forehead. Sasori blinked at the sudden sound that Sakura made and he took notice of what Sakura was doing. Slightly being puzzled, he just asked.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at Sasori. "I've heard that there was such rumor that when you clapped your hand two times, close your eyes and pray very hard, your wish might come true." Sakura said, before returning to her position again.

"And I wish that Granny Chiyo would safely go through the operation." Sakura mumbled softly as she continued repeating the words in her head.

At first, Sasori was staring at Sakura, giving an obvious skeptical look on his face, but then slowly, his frown disappeared and all leave was a sincere and thankful expression. Not only Sakura, but even he himself didn't know he was showing such a unique expression he hadn't had for a few years; especially to a girl he barely know for a month or so.

He slowly raised his hands just like Sakura and clapped softly, following her position and repeated the same thing he wanted for his grandmother in his mind. Without him knowing, Sakura opened one of her bright emerald eyes and gave a sidelong glance at Sasori who was sitting beside her. For a couple of second did Sakura's lips slowly turned into a small smile. She always thought Sasori would be cold and wouldn't do such childish thing, but for his grandmother, he did.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Or perhaps even as long as an hour, they still sat like that position, without moving or speaking a word.

At that moment, the operation door swing opened, and both of them opened their eyes at the same time, looking at each other before standing up like robots. They turned together and look at the doctor that approached them.

"Are you Chiyo's relative?" He spoke.

"I am. How is she now?" Sasori said, his voice seemed hoarse.

"She had safely gone through the operation, she's now safe and sound for now."

Both of them gave a sigh of relief in unison. The doctor just gave a nod before continuing. "You can visit her the next day. The anesthesia still lingers and she might not be awake till tomorrow morning."

"Thank you so much!" Sakura said happily, glad that Chiyo was fine now.

As the doctors walked away, the pinkette immediately slouched at her position, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "I'm glad everything is alright now…"

"Thank you."

Sakura put her hand back to her side and blinked for a couple of second before turning her head, looking at the sloppy redhead as he continued to stare in space. He didn't made an eye contact with Sakura but the pinkette knew the two words that he spoke a few seconds ago were true; he definitely mean it.

"It's just something little I can do." Sakura replied, breaking into a huge smile.

0o0

"Don't you think life is so unpredictable?"

Sasori stared at her for the umpteen time after she had spoke a lot of weird and funny stuff just to bring up a conversation when they were walking to the bus stop together.

"Sometimes." Sasori replied; finally not rolling his eyes after every answer to Sakura's previous question.

They finally reached the dim-lit bus stop, sitting beside each other while waiting for their buses.

"I find it a shame." Sakura continued. "You'll never get to know when you would just collapse and disappeared from this world. There must be so many things we wanted to do so much but we never got to do it." Sakura sighed, looking at the redhead to see if he was listening.

"And everyone is just the same. When they have a wonderful future ahead, they just always don't cherish it, thinking it would last forever, when actually there are more people out there who were doing whatever they can just to survive just one more day when knowing that their life is going to end soon." Sakura continued, shaking her legs while enjoying the cool breeze.

"You are right."

Sakura almost jumped when Sasori suddenly spoke. She stared at him for a moment before she smiled, realizing Sasori was listening to her all the while.

"Hey, why don't we have this interesting game?"

Sasori gave a silent sigh, fully knowing well it would be fun for Sakura, but perhaps not for him.

"Let's write down three things we really wanted to do our life."

Look at it… how fun was that?

"I'm not going to do it." Sasori turned to the other side, gazing at a lamppost flickering its light.

"Come on! I've been wanting to do it so much with my boyfriend!" Sakura said, only shutting her mouth in surprise after realizing she had said something probably absurd for Sasori.

"What?" Sasori turned and looked at her, quirking an eyebrow.

"I said, I've wanted to try this out with my boyfriend." Sakura muttered slowly, only hurrying her next sentence. "And you know exactly that I don't have one. But I really wanted to do it with someone before I grow old. By then, it might be too late." Sakura sighed, feeling a little relived when Sasori actually had got rid of that confusing look on his face.

"Just three." Sakura said merrily.

"I'm not going to believe you." Sasori gazed lazily at her. "Once the three chances are up, you'll definitely request for the next three. And the next three and so on." Sasori turned away, looking at the concrete ground.

There was a short silence, until Sakura finally broke into a huge smile. "You seemed to actually know me pretty well don't you?" Sakura smirked, leaning closer to Sasori.

He moved his seat further away from her just a little, looking back at her. "I knew it. I already know you'll do this trick from the start. I bet everyone know it as well, perhaps you're just the dumb one, thinking everyone doesn't know what trick you are having up your sleeves every time." Sasori muttered while Sakura chortled loudly.

"How did you get my phone number anyway?"

"Deidara told me about it." Sakura widened her eyes just a little after knowing she just let the cat out of the bag. She stared at Sasori's reaction for a while, but he remains impassive. Sakura just took it as he understands it anyway.

"So you are going to do it right?"

Sasori didn't speak; he just remained silent and bored.

"Silence means consent then." Sakura chirped, standing up after realizing a bus driving down the dark street. After taking a close look, she realized it was her bus.

"Yeah yeah." Sasori waved her off.

Sakura beamed, boarding the bus after giving a quick wave as the bus drove off. After that moment, the redhead just gave a tired and loud sigh, lowering his head and just wanted to take a nap.

She must had hypnotized him or something; that's why he even agree to play this "Want to-do list thingy" with her.

0o0

"Good morning!" Sakura said happily jumping to find Sasori drinking water from the water cooler. Her surprising call almost made him chocked onto the water he was drinking. He straightened his posture after drinking to his full and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What is it?" Sasori gave a bored look.

"Let's start exchanging." Sakura put out her hand.

"I don't have any." He said almost immediately.

"I thought I said we would exchange it?" Sakura frowned unpleasantly.

"You should be happy that I was even willing to play this game with you." The redhead frowned back.

Sakura sighed, taking Sasori's book from his hand and exchanged it with a slip of paper. He took it and stared at the very first sentence, and immediately after, he was a little surprise by it.

"D-Drive a car?" Sasori raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah, literally." Sakura gave a bored look. "Does that sentence make you confuse or something?" She yawned deliberately.

"Yes, literally." Sasori handed back the paper and snatched his book back. "If I don't have amnesia, I remember you can drive a car. Or perhaps know how to drive one." Sasori raised an eyebrow.

"I don't have any experience actually." Sakura sighed, looking at the paper. "I don't have my driving license yet and I'm dying to have one. But I don't know whom to approach to ask for assistance either."

"And I don't have a car." Sakura added.

Sasori took another sip of water at the water cooler before looking at Sakura again. At that second, he gave a tiny smirk. "So… You need a car? Then I'll get the car." The redhead mumbled, nodding slowly as he walked off back to the class.

Sakura was staring suspiciously behind Sasori as she cautiously walked back to class with him. She didn't know how to put it to words but… did Sasori just give an evil smirk?

0o0

"So you are free today?" Sakura said in amazement.

"I got a friend to cover my shift for today." The redhead said while unlocking the yellow car that was parked in a parking lot near the school. Sakura had gone home to change into her usual clothes while Sasori was still in his school uniform in an untidy manner with his first button unbuttoned and he had took of his tie.

He patted his hand on the car. "We shall use this car for the lesson. Get on." Sasori said, throwing the key to Sakura as she tried to catch it.

She inspected the keys carefully as if she just picked up gold on the floor. She got on the car and tried to start the car carefully as she grabbed on the steering wheel.

"This is so cool!" Sakura said excitedly, rubbing her hand in glee afterwards.

Sakura stepped on the accelerator carefully, leaving the car park as she stared nervously at the empty road. Luckily there wasn't any car nearby or she probably couldn't even focus at all.

"How do you even drive your friend to the hospital?" Sasori asked suddenly, deciding to put on the seat belt even though he was pretty lazy to.

"I didn't focus on the road. I just keep thinking of Naruto. If I was to focus too much on the road itself, I can't control myself." Sakura gulped, carefully turning to the left of a deserted road.

"The police only caught me when I was driving too fast, and I don't have a driving license." Sakura sighed heavily.

"Since you can do it pretty well and both of you are alive and walking, try turning a U-turn here." Sasori pointed at the corner of the road.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the comment before bitting her lips, grabbing onto the steering wheel as she stepped onto the accelerator a little further. She turned the wheel and slowly amd managed to make a U-turn without fail.

"I did it!" Sakura shrieked.

Sasori clicked his tongue as he rubbed his ears painfully. Sakura started driving slowly on the road until she met the traffic light. She stepped onto her brake and slowed down.

"It's pretty easy after all." Sakura smiled to herself.

Sasori just watched her without a word until the light turned green, ordering her to start driving again.

She had turned a couple for turns, made a number of U-turns and even managed to parked the car nicely in a parking lot. She had tried learning by herself secretly when her mother was put for work and she had left her car at the garage. But then, she only drived down the road before returning the car back to the place after 10 minutes, she didn't have much confidence at all.

But after hearing her friend was in danger, she ditched her date and rushed back home, getting the car without thinking anything else and rushed to save Naruto.

She then decided to drive one last time around the town until they called for break. The pinkette observed the road carefully while Sasori tried not to distract her much, only giving her tips when she did a slight mistake somewhere, and she listened to all of it attentively, which pretty pleased Sasori and was more secretly willing to help Sakura since she was really trying to improve.

But when everything was going very well, two stray cats suddenly dashed out to the road as Sakura widened her eyes and her hand began flying everywhere, turning the steering wheel as if she was a mad pirate.

Sakura started screaming, severing around and even Sasori got dizzy. Both cats meowed extremely loud as it began dashing around and Sakura was already freaking out.

And as long as she lived, she had never heard such terrible screeching sound when the car glided past the lamppost beside the pavement.

Sasori bit his lips and quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, stretching forward and grabbed the wheel and tried his best to swerve the car to the other side as safely as possible. She started to panic and stepped even harder onto the accelerator.

"Wait, Sakura! Stop the brakes!"

The said girl widened her eyes as she immediately stepped onto the brake as the car successfully stopped before it hit the lamppost right in front. The cats were meowing loudly and ran away from the terror it just experience when the car was turning in mad circles.

But the thing was, it wasn't the huge lamppost that the car almost knocked onto that shocked Sakura and made her stepped on the brakes, it was when actually Sasori actually shouted her name at that moment.

It really shocked her; was it the first time she even heard him calling her name?

They stayed silent for a minute in the car while Sasori slowly let go of the wheel, looking as clam as usual as he got back to his seat. He turned to look at Sakura while Sakura looked back at him nervously.

While they kept quiet for the entire time, Sakura immediately recalled the long, painful screeching sound she heard when the car glided across the lamppost along the pavement.

It took a very long time for them to move but when they did, they were as fast as lightning.

Both of them jumped out of the car childishly and looked at the car for any scratches and stuffs. On Sasori's side, there was none, but once he heard the loud gasp at Sakura's side, he couldn't help but sighed.

He trudged forward and looked at the dozen of long scratches on the front door.

"I-Is this your c-car actually?" Sakura rubbed the back of her head sheepishly while looking at Sasori. She's done for, and she knows it.

Sasori stared at the dozen of scratches, blinking a few times slowly before looking at Sakura.

"No."

Sakura froze. She stared at Sasori with both of her eyes wide open.

"This is not y-yours?" Sakura stuttered, looking as pale as ever.

"I'm not that stupid to lent a car to a girl that doesn't have any driving license actually." Sasori gave a stiff yawn, laying his arm on the car and leaned against it.

"You got to be kidding me right?" Sakura started panicking, jumping around the ground. "So… You must have stolen this car! Why don't we make a run from it after wiping away our fingerprints on the steering wheels?" Sakura laughed loudly.

"That was interesting… a student leader of the school to run away from such responsibility." Sasori smirked, giving a short stretched before walking around the car and got onto the driver's seat. Sakura blushed harshly at the comment but didn't say anything; she started to play with her fingers just like Hinata when she was nervous and shy.

"What are you d-doing?" Sakura lowered her head as Sasori got onto the driver's seat and tried starting the car.

"Get in." Sasori just said, trying the car for the second time. Sakura obeyed without a word, briskly getting into the car and sat beside the driver's seat after giving a second glance at the scratches. She quickly buckled her seatbelt while trying to count up to hundred as calmly as possible.

'_If I take out some of my savings, I can actually get the car fixed.'_ Sakura nodded silently, turning to face Sasori and intended to tell him her plan when he had successfully start the car.

"Where are we going?" Sakura said in surprise and she stopped what she was about to say.

"Getting some stuff to fixed those scratches." Sasori started driving, making a U-turn and started finding his own direction to the place where he was heading.

"You know how to fix it?" Sakura said in surprise.

Sasori just give a small nod while focusing on the road, only after a while when Sakura just recalled when Deidara mentioned that Sasori was actually a car mechanic before he quitted his job after feeling that he couldn't cope with it.

Sakura gave a sidelong glance at Sasori before looking back at the narrow road. She's not going to say it but she's definitely grateful to Sasori. But she didn't even know who the owner of the car was anyway, so perhaps she can actually pushed the blame to Sasori because it was him who took the car and lent it to her, although that would be very evil.

In a short while, Sasori finally stopped at the pavement, getting out of the car and run across the road to a shop just opposite. Sakura glanced at the redhead as he entered the shop in a breeze and came out with a plastic bag less than a minute. Sakura's eyes brightened excitedly, wondering what was Sasori going to do next. She immediately got of the car when Sasori stood right in front of the scratches while rummaging through his stuff, shocking Sakura after he took out something almost ridiculous.

"A shoe polish?" Sakura make a face, looking at Sasori again. "We should start getting serious." Sakura continued.

"I'm serious." Sasori stared at her for a second, bending down and inspect the scratches. He took off the lid and took a rug, dapping it onto the black polish. Sakura just quietly stood there, watching Sasori's every move. He started wiping it over the panel several times before placing the things aside.

He quietly took a block of sandpaper before looking at Sakura. "Do you have water?" He asked all of the sudden.

Sakura gasped at the sudden voice before looking back at Sasori. She quickly rummaged through the back after understanding what Sasori meant and handed a water bottle she brought.

"Are you thirst- what are you doing?" Sakura jumped back a few steps when Sasori poured the water onto the sand paper right beside him and in front of Sakura, slightly splashing the content on Sakura's new shoes. "Hey! You don't have to be that mean right? I just bought these shoes last week." Sakura growled.

"I'm so sorry. But it wasn't my fault. There's this girl who actually scratched the car and I just have to fix it or she would cry." Sasori said loudly, obviously the tone when he apology was extremely sarcastic. He placed the bottle by his side and used the sandpaper to sand the panel until the shoe polish disappears.

Sakura took the bottle and started capping it furiously while Sasori used a bottle of rubbing compound and polished it over the scratches.

He took the rug and folded it to the other side and started rubbing the entire panel furiously. Sakura put her bottle back into her bag as she observed Sasori at work. As minutes ticked by, Sakura started to get engrossed in Sasori as he was focusing on cleaning the rubbing compound away.

His messy red hair, his lazy brown eyes, his sharp nose.

Sakura didn't seem to be focusing on what she should be focusing now; instead it was the man that was before her. Long ago, she already noticed those features on Sasori's face, but the longer and closer she looked, the longer she was mesmerize by it; Especially his eyes.

If only she can ruffled his hair, if only she can stared into his eyes forever, if only she can actually…

"Done."

Sakura jumped up from where she was standing and stared at Sasori as he stood up, wiping his sweat with his arm. She inwardly slapped herself for not paying attention as she gulped, shuffling her feet. He threw the rug on the ground and bend down to closely observed the door.

"It's cleared, I don't think it's that obvious for those scratches." Sasori said before grabbing the plastic bag and the rug and headed to the back of the car and opened the trunk of the car and threw the stuffs inside.

Sakura walked towards the car door and inspected the scratches as well, and pretty much, they were gone and not that obvious anymore. She was impressed at Sasori's work but she didn't say it, it's better to keep it to herself.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Sakura asked, standing up straight.

Sasori slammed the car's boot before looking at her. "Returning the car to the owner." He said, walking towards the driver's seat again.

Sakura blinked before nodding her head, following Sasori and back to the passenger's seat. He started the car immediately while Sakura buckled her seat belt.

Along the journey, Sakura started adjusting the radio to a comfortable and soothing music while they sat silently in the car. Sakura just gazed outside the window and watched the sun slowly setting behind the buildings.

It was a short yet peaceful journey and Sakura extremely enjoyed it. Perhaps it was just because she enjoyed the car ride, or because it was Sasori that was keeping her the company.

The pinkette immediately blinked, giving a sidelong glance at the redhead. He actually took the time off just for her and her weird to-do list, yet he didn't complain about it even though it might be wasting his time. Sakura gave a small smile before returning to look at the beautiful sunset.

After the next ten minutes, Sasori turned into a parking lot right beside a tall building.

"Actually, whose car is this?"

"It belongs to Deidara." The redhead answered immediately, parking into a lot carefully to avoid it to hit a pillar right behind it.

"You mean… This is Deidara's car?" Sakura gasped.

"Is my English too hard for you to understand?" Sasori said, finally parking nicely into Deidara's favorite parking lot. He started adjusting the music back to the usual one before Sakura started to alter the music she preferred. He began winding down the windshield and got off the car. When both of them had stepped out of the vehicle, the redhead locked the car and threw the car keys on the driver's seat through the opened windshield for Deidara to take when he wanted to use the car.

"Won't it be dangerous if someone sees the key and just drive the car off?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"The scratches seems be be gone, but if you look very closely, it's still there." Sasori said. "And if you are smart enough, you wouldn't want to hand the car back to him personally. This car is just like his wife." He continued, patting the yellow car before sliding his hands into his pocket and trudged off.

"That means… you didn't got his permission before using his car?" Sakura jogged towards when he left her beside the car.

"An eye for an eye." Sasori looked back at her, almost freaking her out with his very calm look and a very small smile; barely a smile if Sakura had to say.

"He did give you my number without my permission, didn't he?" He muttered dangerously.

Sakura just gave a gulp as Sasori gave a last glance at the car before walking off. At the moment when Sasori actually gave the expression that almost wanted to kill, the girl was already too shock to even move. Probably, it would freak her out if she were to see his true colours.

But he didn't mention about his unpleasantness at the hospital… Maybe it was because all the time, the first thing that was on his mind was just hoping Chiyo would successfully go through the operation safely.

She gave a last look over the car as well before following Sasori out from the parking lot.

Sakura started to look around, trying to look at any street signs to know where she was now, but unfortunately, there was none. She gave an inward sigh but immediately sucked in her breath when Sasori stopped on his track, turned and faced her with a bored look.

"Where do you live?"

Sakura blinked before looking around again.

"I think I'll just take a cab home. I don't think there's a direct bus here." Sakura stopped her movement before smiling at Sasori.

The redhead just gave a small nod, bringing Sakura out on an almost deserted road. Only a few cars passed by a minute and Sakura knew she had to wait for a very long time to get a cab. They stood at the pavement for a couple of minutes before Sakura break the peaceful silent.

"I still have three more chances right?" She randomly asked.

Sasori raised an eyebrow, giving a skeptical look as he turned to face her. "If I didn't fail my math during elementary school, three minus one is clearly two, not three." Sasori muttered.

"Well, obviously the entire driving lesson is a fail." Sakura waved her arms around.

Sasori slowly shook his head, giving a disbelieving look while Sakura smiled to herself. "I'll start thinking on it next time." Sakura spoke out loud.

The redhead didn't spoke for a long time and even Sakura stopped her babbling. Both were tired, yet they didn't mention it. Even though it was pretty awkward for Sakura when both of them were not talking, but Sasori was used to it; he's too lazy to talk anyway.

"Finally! A cab!" Sakura shrilled happily after standing on her feet for so long. She started flagging while Sasori watched the car slowing down and stopped right before Sakura. She stepped down the pavement and approached the car before looking at Sasori.

"Taking the cab with me?" Sakura asked.

He shook his head while Sakura stopped her action and stared at Sasori for a moment. He slightly tilted his head, wondering what was Sakura up to.

"Thanks for the day. Good night." Sakura smiled before jumping into the cab and closed the door.

Sasori didn't have the time to reply as the cab already sped off once Sakura finished telling the driver where she wanted to head to. At that moment, the redhead was a little shock to speak. She was the first girl in his life to ever say;

"_Thanks for the day. Good night."_

Wasn't he scary enough to scare this particular pinkette away from him? Why was she always bugging him and never stopped it even when he was rude, cold and curt to her every time?

He just watched the cab from a far until it disappeared from his view. Before giving a long sigh, turning and started walking home.

Or possibly, the hospital.

0o0

He could hear sobs louder and louder as he walked down the small park located just right outside the Hyuuga's huge estate.

The Inuzuka was clutching onto his phone, looking around frantically until he spot a shadow right on a long bench, her long silky hair in a mess and both of her knees right in front of her chest.

"Hinata!" Kiba shouted, running towards the said girl as quickly bent over and brushed her violet hair and put it behind her ears.

"Hinata, what's the matter? I immediately rushed over when I heard you crying on the phone. Did your father scold you again?" Kiba said worriedly.

"T-They s-send me those p-photos again… I-I don't k-know what t-to do…" Hinata raised a brown bag as Kiba confusedly took it and fished out the content that was inside. Even though it was dark, Kiba could clearly see what the pictures were.

"H-Hinata…" Kiba widened his eyes, before immediately setting the pictures right beside Hinata uncomfortably while he placed his hands on her shoulder.

All she could do was to cry even harder, putting her legs off the bench and went forward to hug Kiba.

"W-What S-Should I do?" Hinata continued sobbing as Kiba recklessly try to think of a solution to help the poor little girl that he had a crush on 5 years ago.


	6. Stupid

Goodbye Apathy

_"My boyfriend just bought it for me."_

_"Serious?" The girls started crowding around their classmate who was showing off her new phone. _

_"Your phone is the same model as mine, just that your color is nicer." A brunette said jealously._

_"If you were to sell this phone, you can get a more than a hundred bucks. That's what my dad said." Another added_

The Hyuuga heir walked quietly along the empty hallway with a zip-locked bag in her hand. She stopped and glanced around the corridor again, before continuing her way back to her classroom.

It was lunch period and everyone had already gone to the canteen, especially the group of girls that were showing off their phone this morning right before Hinata's eyes.

_"Anyway, I'm leaving my phone in class."_

_"Aren't you afraid anyone would steal it?"_

_"The others are doing the same, and why not? The dangerous place is the safest place after all." She proudly said, before adding._

_"Furthermore, pickpockets nowadays are extremely skillful, putting in my bag would be better than bringing it out with me." _

_"You're right, we should do the same too." The group of girls said in unison._

"Hinata?"

The said girl jumped, almost dropping the phone that was in her hand.

"Hinata… what are you doing?" Kiba said in disbelief, walking towards the Hyuuga as he stared at the unfamiliar phone in her hand. "That's one expensive phone you got there." Kiba stared at her, quirking an eyebrow. "How did you-"

"I need t-the money K-Kiba…" Hinata looked down, clutching tightly on the phone and the zip-locked bag that was actually for her sandwich; the bag was already filled with many expensive phones.

"Are those stolen?" Kiba gulped, looking around to see anyone heard them.

"If they show t-those p-pictures to my father, I'll be d-dead!" Hinata cried out panicky, hugging the phones to her chest, afraid to let Kiba take hold of it.

"B-But…" Kiba looked down at the expensive devices. "Don't you want to discuss this to Neji? Or maybe Sakura as well?" Kiba asked calmly.

"No! I-I can't do that!" Hinata hugged herself while tugging at each end of her sleeves. "Neji-san cannot k-know about this, and Sakura…" Hinata blinked away her tears. She quickly grabbed onto Kiba's hand and began to beg again.

"K-Kiba, please… If I don't h-hand the money the day after t-tomorrow, they w-will show those pictures! I need the m-money! I've u-used u-up my entire saving f-for this and I've borrowed a-a lot of money from you. I h-have to think of a way!"

Hinata seemed to have practically gone mad from what Kiba had noticed. The Hyuuga heir was always quiet, shy and responsible. But ever since that incident happened, she was unable to control her emotions; crying even easily and often become agitated. Kiba wanted to help but he had promised Hinata not to tell anyone. Furthermore, his mother was already suspicious about him taking so much money from his bank and he had to stop.

What could he do?

"Please… K-Kiba..." Hinata begged, grabbing onto his shirt. "I have to do it." Hinata sobbed.

"We have no choice then…" Kiba took the phone gently from Hinata's hand and pulled the bag away from Hinata's grip. He carefully unzipped the bag and placed the phone inside, clearly showing that he had approved what Hinata was doing, even though he knew it was totally wrong.

"If we manage to sell all of these, we should have enough money to pay it off, including the couple hundred dollars you had in hand." Kiba counted, clutching onto the bag.

"I think I should keep it, in case something goes wrong." Kiba added, giving a small smile at Hinata.

Hinata stared at Kiba for a while before looking down shyly. "Thank you s-so much Kiba…" She mumbled hoarsely.

If only he was as smart as Shikamru, if only he was as brave as Naruto, maybe he could have worked out something right instead of doing such things.

Kiba quickly broke his line of thoughts and walked to his desk, picking up his bag and put all the things inside. He carefully zipped his bag and looked at Hinata, nodding his head. "We should probably go now before anyone find us here."

Without another word, they walked briskly out of the classroom before anyone find them again.

0o0

"Tsk." Sasori clicked his tongue as he immediately felt his empty pocket. He had left his wallet in class again.

"What's wrong?" Sakura said, sucking onto her straw.

"I left my wallet in class." Sasori sighed, looking around as if he was checking on who was listening. He then stood up from his seat and walked off without a word.

"Wait- "Sakura was about to call for him again, but the canteen was filled with many people and their loud chattering.

"What's so important about the wallet? I can lend him my money first…" Sakura frowned. Sakura was now all alone sitting at the corner of the canteen by herself; and she didn't want to let others to know she was alone, especially Ino.

She looked around quietly before drinking on her beverage again.

0o0

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata whimpered, looking up immediately to stare at the person she had bumped into after walking out of the classroom. It was none other than her schoolmate, Sasori.

Kiba gulped, blinking several times before staying rooted onto the ground. They never expect anyone would go back to class during lunch period. Hinata immediately clutched hard onto her skirt behind her back and glanced quickly away and at the lockers that were a few meters away.

Knowing how uncomfortable they were, Sasori decided to speak first. "If there's nothing else, I should be going now." He said, making his way back to the classroom himself.

Hinata immediately bowed after Sasori and moved away, looking desperately at Kiba. The Inuzuka then stepped forward and tugged onto her sleeve, making a hand signal for them to quietly get away from there. Hinata obeyed without objection as they hurriedly walked towards the cafeteria.

0o0

"Wait! Guys! My phone is missing!"

At first, there was only one who claimed that his phone was missing, but then, more were shouting the same thing as well.

Sasori and Sakura, along with the few others, Ino and Neji entered the room, only to be greeted by the chaos in the classroom

"Not only yours, mine as well is missing!"

"Mine too!"

"What's happening?" Sakura asked while Sasori walked back to his own seat, ignoring everything that was happening.

"Stupid, you guys should have brought your phones with you." Kiba shouted. Hinata looked at the Inuzuka as he calmly looked around. The very last thing he needed was to let anyone suspect him.

"But mine is gone! Someone must have stolen it."

"Yeah, someone here must have stolen it!"

"Is it you? Bitch?"

"Fuck off, it wasn't me."

Everyone were practically screaming and shouting at one another, wanting each other to own up. However, the people whose phones were not stolen just sat down quietly while waiting for their teacher to start their lesson.

Sasori laid his head on the table tiredly. Everyone in town had been saying KonohaHigh was the best and had many well-mannered, considerate and responsible students, whereas Akatsuki were for monsters and criminals.

For Sasori, he begged to differ. At least in Akatsuki, he could actually sleep peacefully for the entire day at school. But in KonohaHigh, he couldn't even sleep for a minute without any disturbance.

"What is going on here?"

Everyone stopped at whatever they were doing and scurried to their seat. Sakura was still trying to separate two guys who were at each other's throat until she got help from Tsunade when no one was willing to help her.

"Where is your sensei?" Tsunade glowered.

"Not here yet Tsunade-sama." Sakura panted, wiping an invisible sweat on her forehead.

"What on earth is going on then? Couldn't all of you quietly sit down and waited for your sensei to come? I could hear all your bickering miles away." Tsunade huffed angrily; looking at everyone while her the vice-principle Shizune was shaking her head in disapproval.

"But our phone was lost!" Someone finally shouted.

"Yeah, same here!"

"Me too!"

The noise level was getting louder and louder and everyone was screaming again.

"It must be you, bitch." A redhead girl threw herself towards another girl as she started a catfight. "You are jealous because it was your ex-boyfriend that gave it to me."

"I don't want you ugly phone you whore!"

"Shut up!" Tsunade screamed, and everyone froze in their position, not daring to move. She stomped to the middle of the class and looked at everyone.

"Everyone, I want to check your bags. Shizune, you check this side while I check this side." Tsunade ordered.

Everyone then took their bags and placed it on their tables or chairs and waited for their bags to be checked. Sasori lazily stood up, rubbing his tired eyes and yawned.

Konoha was practically childish. That's all he could infer from this school.

"Next." Tsunade grumbled.

By now, Kiba and Hinata were desperate, all those phones were in Kiba's bags and they would be doomed if the phones were found.

Hinata was sitting at the left side of the room while Kiba was on the other side. There were still a few students' bags to be checked before both get their turn. They need to do something fast or they would be dead.

They of them looked at each other worriedly again, the stack of phones that were sealed in a plastic bag was in now with Kiba, but what can he do now?

"Riiiinnnnnnnnngggggg!"

Everyone immediately looked at the corner of the class and a nerd took out his phone, waving it in the air. "Nothing is wrong, just my alarm clock…" He then punched his phone's button in a very childish nerd way and smiled with his crooked teeth. Everyone rolled their eyes and a few throw paper balls at him.

That moment when everyone was distracted, Kiba took out the bag that was hidden in his bag and slipped it into Sasori's bag that was conveniently right in front his own table, slung on the chair.

It seemed that no one had noticed what Kiba did except for Hinata and himself.

"Ok calm down kids. It's just a phone ringing, not a bomb." Tsunade rolled her eyes before proceeding to the next student, along with Shizune as well. After a moment, Tsunade finally came over to Sasori's table.

"Bag?"

Sasori gave a small sigh and picked up his bag, only to find something amiss.

It suddenly became heavier than usual.

"Sasori, your bag." Tsunade put her hand on her hips.

Shizune finished inspecting Sakura's bag as she zipped it closed after inspection. But after hearing Sasori's name, the pinkette spun around and looked at the redhead curiously.

Sasori was frozen at the spot, staring at his bag suspiciously. Someone must have put something in his bag to make it heavy…

Tsunade stepped forward and snatched the bag from Sasori's grip and sat it on the table, un-zipping his bag.

Kiba and Hinata gulped in unison.

Tsunade was rummaging his bag for a while before pulling out a zip-lock bag filled with all the stolen phones inside.

Everyone gasped as they stared at Sasori and started pointing at him, muttering curses at him.

"That's my phone you thief."

"Hey, that's mine! My boyfriend gave it to me on my birthday!"

"If there's a scratch on it, I'll kill you!"

Sakura stared in shock as she looked at the bag of phones. She turned her gaze and observed Sasori's expression, only to see him remaining calm and impassive.

'_Do something Stupid! Say it wasn't you!'_ Sakura yelled in her head.

"Sasori, what do you have to say?" Tsunade stared at Sasori, disappointed.

"Yes, I stole it." Sasori muttered.

'_Stupid idiot!' _ Sakura mentally gave a huge punch at Sasori's face.

0o0

For the next couple of lessons, all the victims of the stolen phones and the redhead were sent to Tsunade's office. Sakura was left alone with a couple of others; mostly all of them were from her _previous_ clique that she was in.

"And for together history lesson, we shall end it here." Kurenai closed the book and stared at the almost empty class and shook her head.

"Your class is the best class I've taught, why would there be a thief here?" She sighed heavily.

"It wasn't our fault!" Naruto protested. "It was that Sasori. He stole it and even brought down our reputation."

Everyone began booing once they heard Sasori's name.

Sakura bit her lips, looking down at her seat. Millions of question flooded her mind.

'_Sasori… did went back to class during lunch period…'_

'_Sasori… did need the money to pay for those bills…'_

'_Sasori… did admit that he was the one the stole it…'_

'_But, I just don't think this was Sasori's style in dealing problems. Why would he do that? It's not possible…'_

Sakura began ruffling her pink hair, sucking in a deep breath.

'_What the hell really happened?'_

0o0

Sakura was sitting patiently outside the detention room, looking at the huge clock on the wall.

In the next minute, the bell chimed once again and Sakura stood up, waiting for the door to open. And it did.

"Sasori!"

It was a few of her own classmates that walked out of the detention room first, followed by the redhead that was walking slowly out of the room.

"Sasori…" Sakura called out again, only to stare horrified at some bruises and cuts on his face. It seemed that he had a fight.

"What hap-"

The redhead continued walking with his shoulder slouched and hands in pocket. He didn't even stop for Sakura who was sitting outside for three hours just to wait for him.

She scoffed angrily and ran towards him, trying to catch up with him. But he was walking very fast and Sakura had to catch her breath before she could speak.

"S-Sasori, what really happened?"

"I stole it. Got a problem?" He muttered.

Sakura blinked, shaking her head furiously and ran forward, just to stop Sasori from walking any further. He stopped swiftly before he really knocked into Sakura.

"Something must have happened, why?"

"No one believe me if I said it had nothing to do with me." Sasori sneered, narrowing his eyes.

"But I believe you! I really do!" Sakura screamed out the words. He just stared at her for a few seconds without any change of expression, and it was what Sakura had expected from the start.

Sasori then walked around Sakura and continued his fast pace, ignoring Sakura despite the number of times she had called his name.

"Wait…"

Sakura gave up, only watching Sasori from a distance until he walked out of school. The more Sasori acted this way, the more she believed that Sasori wasn't the one that stole the phones.

She's never going to let her friend to be framed when he was actually innocent.

Friend?

Sakura blinked, putting her finger to her lips.

'_Did I just referred Sasori as my friend?'_ Sakura repeated the question in her head.

"Anyway…" Sakura shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "I have to find a way to prove his innocence." She said to herself. Within a second, she was already on her way to the principle office.

0o0

"It's like Sasori-strikes-back." A guy started whispering

"I thought he was a decent guy after being her for a couple of weeks, it seemed he still have the influence for being in the Akatsuki school…"

Sasori sighed, slamming his locker before approaching to the cafeteria alone. He just needs the quiet time by himself. No gossiping, no shouting and no annoying pink-haired brat.

He pushed opened the glass door and approached into the quiet cafeteria, finding a seat to sit nearby. Sasori then threw his bag on the table and laid his head on top of it. Even though it slightly hurts his bruise that was on the side of his face, he still ignored it and just wanted to take a nap.

"Sa-Sasori…"

The redhead flung open his eyes at the unfamiliar voice, straightening his posture. He looked over at the quiet and shy Hyuuga who was standing a little far away from him, as if she was scared that he would eat her.

"Hyuuga." Sasori muttered, looking a little annoyed that someone had disturbed him when he was about to sleep.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata bowed once again like yesterday and it shocked Sasori with her sudden action. She remained in her position until Sasori finally spoke.

"It there something wrong?" He asked before Hinata slowly went back to her standing position. She looked down and began shuffling her feet while playing with her thumb. To say the truth, Sasori felt like shouting at her, telling her to hurry the hell up but he definitely knew she would cry; by the rumors he heard about Hinata being the "Crying Hyuuga".

But before Sasori could speak again, Hinata started sobbing.

"W-What's the matter?" Sasori stuttered for the first time. He had never seen a girl cry before and he hated it when he seen one. He just didn't know how to comfort them or make them stop. It may seemed stupid but he's just hopeless in reassuring any girl in any sort of situation they might be in, and sometimes he might make it worse.

"If it's about the bumping issue, I'm really f-fine." Sasori assured her, looking at Hinata as he raised an eyebrow. It was then the first bell starting ringing, yet none of them made a move. They were still in the same position.

"I'm r-really s-sorry…" Hinata sniffed.

Sasori tilted his head a little, but before he could ask why again, Hinata cuts in.

"It was m-me that stole all t-those things. I've c-caused you to get m-mocked at and b-beaten up by my s-schoolmate. I'm really sorry! I've made e-everyone b-blaming you and m-made bad impressions about you!"

"What…?" That was the only thing Sasori could say.

"It's all m-my fault!" Hinata cried out.

There was a long silence, and only Hinata's sob was echoing in the canteen. Sasori could hear some noises outside the canteen, supposing that it was the students walking back to their classes.

"It's all right. Just don't do it again." Sasori tried his best to smile, but all he could was to twitch his lips. He really didn't mind being mocked at all, since this was one of the many times he was framed and he was used to it already.

"R-really? But I-"

The bell rang loudly in the empty canteen, interrupting Hinata's sentence. Sasori just lazily stood up, rubbing the small bruise beside his mouth. "It's alright. This is nothing." Sasori repeated, putting his bag on his shoulder. "I know you must have your reason for doing this but stealing is an offence. You are a nice girl, you shouldn't do that again." Sasori spoke, trying his best to be nice to a girl for the first time.

"S-Sasori…"

"I'll go back to class now." He said, stopping Hinata from speaking further. Sasori definitely didn't need a girl to cry in front of him because of her guilt and begging for his forgiveness when he repeated million of times that it was all right.

He pushed the door opened, walking out of the canteen and leaving Hinata alone in the canteen. Her quivering lips slowly turned into a small smile that was almost unnoticeable. Her guilt suddenly vanished away and she felt that a heavy boulder was lifted from her shoulder.

But now… She had a problem…

She stared at the canteen and all the chairs and tables and her small smile soon faded away once she remembered her problem. Another boulder seemed to have dropped onto her shoulder, pressuring her once again.

How was she going to raise the money?

0o0

"Here."

Sasori stared at the pink bandage between Sakura's fingers as she tried to hand it to him, but Sasori refused to take it.

"What's that for?" He asked an obvious question.

"For your butt." Sakura gave a bored look that she learnt from Sasori. "Of course it's for those cuts and bruise on your damn face. Stupid." Sakura placed the pink plaster on his table.

It was lunch period and no one was in class, only leaving the two of them alone.

"What is it pink?" He looked at Sakura.

"Because I paint it." Sakura made a face and rolling her eyes. "Geez, this is my last pink plaster I have at home. Just use it. Stupid."

"Stop calling me stupid." Sasori grunted.

"Sorry. Stupid." Sakura sneered back. "You had me searching for all those guys that beaten you up yesterday, and do you know it took me the entire evening to do that? Seriously…" Sakura pulled a chair and sat beside Sasori.

Sasori blinked, frowning slightly. "Why did you even do that?" He asked.

Sakura's facial expression immediately changed. She gazed at Sasori and looked away quickly when she realized he was staring at her and waiting for an answer. "W-Well, it was Tsunade-sama that ordered me t-to do that." Sakura stuttered, only saying the half-truth.

In-fact, she volunteered to catch all those people that beaten Sasori up, and all Tsunade did was allowing her to do so.

"Whatever." Sakura picked up the plaster from the table again and took Sasori's hand just to take it. "Take it."

From the sudden touch by Sakura made Sasori froze for a moment, but he quickly gained back his composure by shrugging off Sakura's tight grip.

"I'm not wearing that stupid pink plaster. I rather die." Sasori said.

"The cut might get infected, and you really might die." Sakura started peeling of the plastic sheet on the plaster, ready to put it on Sasori's face.

"No. Go. Away."

"Why? You're afraid the girls would avoid you? Trust me, all of them out there will be screaming for you just by adding my magical plaster."

Sakura bent forward while Sasori dragged his chair away. "I said no."

"Come on don't be a baby."

"Don't touch me."

"But-"

"Look at them… How adorable…"

Sasori and Sakura immediately froze.

A girl suddenly walked into the class along with another friend, giggling with each other

"I have to admit, they look cute together." Her friend added.

They stopped their childish act and sat back to their seat. Sasori started muttering a few incoherent words while Sakura started blushing. Her back of her neck started growing warm, cold sweats beginning to form on her palm and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. It had been a long time since she was feeling this way. When was it?

The first day when everyone was teasing her about Sasuke? Probably. But why was she feeling this way? Now?

Sasori stood up and gave a small sigh, walking behind Sakura and trudged out of the classroom with both hands in his pocket. He was planning to take a nap during lunch period and Sakura ruined it for him.

The said girl mentally slapped herself while the girls walked out of their classroom after taking their stuff, chortling all the way. Sakura took a book from a random person's table and covered her face with it while she blushed in embarrassment.

When everyone was making fun of her with Naruto or Lee, she didn't feel that way… but why Sasori?

She could hear another group of chuckling outside the class

Haha. Another rumor coming fresh from the oven.

0o0

Sasori was nowhere to be seen after Sakura made her rounds around school. There was still a lot of time before the next bell goes and Sakura don't feel like eating anything, her mind was just filled with random question.

'_Why do I feel so weird?'_ Sakura sighed inwardly.

'_Why is my life so horrible.'_ She started messing up her hair.

'_When will I even get a boyfriend?'_ Sakura rolled her eyes, looking at the ground as she walked slowly along the quiet corridor.

"What are you going to do now?"

'_Why is the voice so familiar?' _She blinked, finding herself stupid for asking that question.

Sakura straightened her posture, looking forward to find Kiba standing in front of Hinata as she looked down at her feet, playing with her fingers.

'_What are they doing?'_ Sakura frowned. She then noticed a pillar and quickly rushed towards it, hiding behind just to eavesdrop them.

"I-I don't know… I promised Sasori not to s-steal anymore, but I don't have enough m-money that he w-wanted." Hinata mumbled.

'_Sasori? When did Hinata- What is happening?'_

"Why do you care about him?" Kiba grunted jealously.

"It w-was me made h-him the scapegoat!" Hinata cried out. "It was I w-who stole the t-things but Sasori t-took the full blame, I felt s-so guilty every since…" Hinata cried out.

"But… Hinata…" Kiba stared sadly at Hinata as she started crying.

All Sakura do was to cup her mouth with her hand, bright emerald eyes widened to its maximum. She couldn't speak at all.

0o0

"Hinata is out at the park again." Hanabi pointed.

Sakura turned back and stared at the well-lit park before looking back at Hanabi and smiled. "Thank you! I'll bring you chocolate next time." Sakura smiled sweetly at Hinata's sister.

"It better be milk chocolate." Hanabi gave a loud yawn before going back to the house after closing the huge gate. Sakura watched the Hyuuga entering their large house before whirling around, deciding to find Hinata to find out the truth.

But how was she going to ask Hinata about the incident?

She began shuffling her feet loudly, walking extremely slowly towards the park. She was still debating whether she should ask Hinata everything tonight until she heard a familiar sob nearby. She raised her head since she had kept it lowered the entire time and quickened her pace, listening carefully to the sobs she heard.

"Hinata?" She whispered at first, before starting to shout her name.

"Hinata!"

The sob stopped immediately after the Sakura called out the second time and now she was hundred percent sure it was Hinata.

She looked around again, squinting her eyes and tried to find her friend by using the lights casted by the lampposts.

"Hinata!" Sakura cried out again, only noticing a girl hugging her knees with her hand cupped over her mouth on a bench not far. Hinata quickly turned and faced Sakura, realizing she was caught but she was too tired and weak to move.

"Why are you crying Hinata, what's wrong?" Sakura then rushed over swiftly, squatting down in front of Hinata as her face was soaked with sweats and dry tears line.

"S-Sakura…"

Sakura stood up and was about to sit down when her attention was attracted to a brown envelope. Haruno bent forward and picked it up but Hinata was about to snatch it away when she realized Sakura had taken it.

"Sakura! No!" She yelled.

The pink-haired girl stepped a few steps back, clearly shock by Hinata's sudden burst of emotions. She frowned deeply, even wanting more to know what was inside the envelope.

"Sakura, p-please give me back." Hinata begged, standing up to only sat back down again as her legs was shivering and numb.

The stubborn Haruno took out the photos from the envelope and quietly looked through the pictures, only to widen her eyes so big that it could pop out any moment.

"What are these?" Sakura shrieked, stepping forward and showing Hinata the photo as well.

Hinata looked down and stared at her feet, gripping onto her shirt as it started to wrinkle.

Sakura stepped forward and placed the photo on the bench, still feeling shocked and disturbed after looking at the photo. Without any invitation, she sat beside Hinata and they remained silent for a moment, trying to calm herself.

She finally found the right time to speak as she turned slightly towards Hinata.

"Hinata… what exactly happened?" Sakura face fell, putting her hand on Hinata's shoulder. The Hyuuga sobbed for a while and all Sakura did was to remain quiet again, letting Hinata to calm down for a while.

"I-" Hinata sniffed, looking at Sakura. Haruno gave a small nod and an assured smile, waiting for Hinata to continue. "I was the one t-that stole all the things. Not S-Sasori…"

Sakura softened her gaze and smiled.

'_At least she didn't lied anymore, she was feeling guilty all along…'_

"I already know about it. I actually heard the conversation between you and Kiba. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I've heard everything." Sakura explained.

Hinata's eyes widened a little. "I thought y-you would h-hate me…" Hinata sobbed as she continued.

"And I made S-Sasori feel so b-bad as well. It was all my f-fault." Hinata added.

"It's not your fault…" Sakura said softly, tapping Hinata's shoulder lightly. "There must be a reason right? I know something is bothering you. Was it because of those photos?" Sakura said calmly. But in her mind, many question were screaming in her head, wanting to know what really happened.

Hinata never paused to ponder; instead she decided to tell Sakura everything. She needed to tell someone very bad and it was driving her mad. Hinata was all choked up and she couldn't sleep at night after the incident. Yes, Kiba might have known what happened, but she still feel so uncomfortable when she was telling a boy about her incident.

Although Kiba never judged her, she deeply wanted to tell a girl friend. She needed to pour out all her sorrow but she didn't know whom to turn to. However, she found one, her best friend.

Weren't they close? You might ask. But ever since the cold war between Ino and Sakura, they rarely talked much anymore and Hinata always blamed herself that it was her fault when it completely had nothing to do with her.

"Just t-two weeks ago. I'd run away from home a-after being r-reprimanded by my f-father." Hinata spoke after trying her best to stop her hiccups.

"I-I don't know w-who to turn to, so I kept walking, n-not knowing where to go… B-But as I continue w-walking, a man came towards me." Hinata began sobbing as she recalled the incident. Sakura started patting on her shoulder again, trying her best to calm Hinata down.

"H-he brought me to this b-bar nearby… And I got drunk i-immediately j-just by d-drinking a f-few sips of alcohol." Hinata then took in a deep breath, finishing her last sentence.

"That m-man then brought me t-to the hotel, a-and everything s-started f-from there…" Hinata started sobbing loudly, burying her face into both of hands. Sakura frowned deeply, looking at those nude photos of Hinata as she looked away disgustingly.

"That bastard…" Sakura gritted her teeth and clutched her fist extremely tightly.

"From then, h-he continues to s-sent me all t-these p-photos. T-threatening me to t-tell my father if I don't give h-him the money." Hinata mumbled softly.

"He's blackmailing you?" Sakura hollered.

Hinata nodded softly. "T-Tomorrow, I h-have to meet him a-at a c-cafeteria after school. B-But I still d-did not manage to r-raise t-the amount of money h-he wanted." Hinata looked at Sakura with both of her swollen red eyes.

"Hinata, don't worry about it." Sakura glared at the photos for the last time before looking very determined at Hinata. "I'll get everything fixed." Sakura went forward and hugged Hinata as the Hyuuga heir begin crying even harder into Sakura's shoulder.

"Remember? I'm your best friend after all."

* * *

Author's Note:

And you may be thinking, "Why don't they bring their phones with them?" Well, my filler characters are just that stupid.  
It was hard writing Hinata here when she was so weak and crying blabla. I like Hinata, but I just couldn't grasp her character until now. –Sighs- I tried my best to make her in character so I hope I did okay.


	7. Understanding

GoodBye Apathy

The dismissal bell rang as everyone in class shouted happily, despite the fact when the teacher was still teaching the class.

But whatever, no one cared. They started packing their bag and greeted the teacher one by one, running out of the classroom.

The sensei sighed, closing his book and walked out of the room as well. However, that was not the main focus of the day, today was the best and special day of the whole time Sasori had been in school.

Why?

The brat he was annoyed with didn't speak to him for the entire day. He didn't know why, but he was slightly happy about it. If he somehow died on that day, he could still die in peace.

Sasori stood up, taking his bag and walked out of the classroom, not giving Sakura the chance to pounce on him and bugged him for the rest of the day.

While the others were slowly leaving, both Hinata and Sakura slowly packed up their things until every left the class in a hurry.

Sakura remained in her seat as she put her pencil case back into her bag and looked up, only to see Hinata standing before her table, giving a worried look.

"I-I still t-think it's dangerous." Hinata tugged onto Sakura's sleeve.

The pinkette stood up and smiled, patting Hinata on the head and ruffles her long violet hair. "I'll be fine. I'll be the one controlling the situation."

"Why d-don't w-we tell a guy about this?" Hinata suggested, still feeling uneasy about Sakura's idea. "H-How about S-Sasori?" She blurted out.

Sakura blinked, looking at Hinata and shook her head desperately. "Don't tell him about it!" Sakura blinked again, looking away and pouted.

"I don't need his help anyway. I can help my own friend." Sakura mumbled before looking at Hinata.

"Promise me, don't breathe a word to him." Sakura put out her pinky. "Furthermore, I want to prove to boys that girls can be independent on their own. That way, they wouldn't bully us, thinking we are weaklings and pushovers."

Hinata stared at Sakura's pinky before taking out taking out her little finger as well. Reluctantly, she mumbled.

"P-Promise."

"Oh yeah Hinata, could you do me a favor?" Sakura asked.

Hinata nodded.

The pinkette smiled and started rummaging through her bag before taking out a stack of manga that she borrowed at the store where Sasori worked.

"Could you do me a favor and return these? It was due two days ago and I didn't want to drag the date." Sakura said sheepishly.

Hinata took the books and hugged it towards her. "I'll d-definitely help you!" She said quickly, touching on the sharp corner of the book. "W-Where am I supposed to return it?" She asked.

"The place where you told me to get the new manga that I wanted for a long time." The pinkette replied merrily and smiled.

Ah… she could still remember that day when she saw Sasori in that cute uniform.

Sakura widened her eyes and straightened her posture, shaking her head to break off her thoughts.

'_I shouldn't be thinking of all these things now.'_

She took her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I'll be leaving now, just wait for my call." Sakura beamed, walking out of the classroom confidently.

Hearing the silence after the footsteps made by Sakura out of the class, the Hyuuga slumped back on her seat, placing the books on the table.

She felt so uneasy… She wanted to scream really loudly but she couldn't; there was something stuck in her throat and she felt really uncomfortable.

Hinata felt so useless here, she cried day and night because of the incident she caused by her own self, yet it was her friend that was going to clear it up for her. Shouldn't she be the one doing it?

But like what Sakura said, she got to wait for her phone call then.

0o0

Hinata looked around the crowded mall, finally spotting the store that she was supposed to return the books for Sakura. She walked steadily towards the shop and approached to the manga section, ready to do what her friend had asked her to. It was the very little thing she coukd do for Sakura when she was helping her to do such a dangerous thing.

"Hyuuga?" The redhead straightened his posture, looking at the approaching Hyuuga uncomfortably.

Hinata clutched onto the books tightly and gave a shocked expression. "S-Sasori!" She almost shouted, giving a bewildered look. Hinata then looked down at the books in her hand, remembering how Sakura smiled to herself when she was talking about the place where the books were supposed to be return to.

"These are the b-books that Sakura w-wanted to return." Hinata handed the book to Sasori.

The redhead stood up from his chair, walking to the counter and took the books, frowning.

'_Either she was that lazy or she's planning to ignore me along with her friends.'_ He shrugged before flipping through the manga pages, browsing only a little before placing it on the counter.

"Tell her that she have to pay for the late rental fees." Sasori mumbled.

"I-I will." Hinata said.

"Sasori! Help me move these new stocks to the storeroom." A voice yelled from behind the tall shelves.

"Ok." He shouted, standing up from his chair.

"Wait, S-Sasori…" Hinata spoke, stopping Sasori in his track.

Sasori stopped and stared at her, raising both of his red eyebrow.

Hinata looked up, playing with her thumb. "C-Can I speak to you f-for a moment?"

0o0

"Damn that Hyuuga bitch, where is she?"

"_He's t-tall, brown-haired and have bright b-blue eyes." Hinata fumbled on her shirt again, trying hard to remember the man's appearance. "I'm s-sorry, but t-that's a-all I can remember…" She shyly said_

Sakura sat down at the corner of the restaurant, right beside the man who was still muttering curses under his breathe.

She didn't have to look anymore, the man she was finding was right there.

Now… she just had to get his attention.

The pinkette brushed her hair through her fingers, calmly taking out her phone and started pressing some random numbers before clicking the red button deleting everything. She then put the phone to her ears, pretending to wait for the receiver to pick up when she wasn't even calling anyone.

"Hey. I'm freaking bored now." Sakura spoke loudly.

"Johnny? I've ditched him yesterday. He's so boring." Sakura inwardly gulped, closing her eyes and took in a deep breath before saying the sentence. "He's bad at sex and he totally ruined it for me." She muttered loudly just for the man to hear.

But he didn't seem to respond or bothered by the comment made by Sakura as he continued looking at his watch and the entrance of the restaurant.

Sakura took in another deep breath, biting her lips. She had to quickly get his attention or the plan would definitely failed.

'_What else does he want other than making love in bed?'_

She glanced at the brown envelope on the table before an idea struck her mind.

'_Of course! Money!'_

"Let's talk about others." Sakura looked at her nails and crossed her leg, as if she was really a rich girl. "You know the dress that you commoners can't get even after saving your money for several weeks? My dad bought me all the 12 different colours available on the market." Sakura faked a laugh.

"Not only that, next week, my mum decided to take me to the jewelry exhibition held by the world famous jewelries collectors. I'll definitely be on the news." Sakura yawned loudly giving a sidelong glance at the adult by her side.

He was watching her closely.

'_Even though it was exaggerating, he still took the bait.'_

"You want the dress? I can lent it to you." Sakura bragged before speaking again. "Actually I can give you one instead, I have all sorts of different and expensive clothes to wear."

"After all-" Sakura whipped her hair and leaned against the soft chair. "-My parents are rich."

"Hey babe, mind if I sit here?"

'_Yes! I did it!'_

"Sorry, I've got to go." Sakura looked at him and smirked "I have some business to deal with." Sakura whispered loudly in the phone and pretended to shut it off.

"Sure, why not." Sakura said, gesturing at the seat.

The man pulled out the chair and sat on it, placing the envelope on the table and sink into the hair heavily. "You seem lonely, waiting for a friend?" He asked.

Sakura looked at him before giving a seductive smirk. "I've cancelled the date, I'm just relaxing here, and do you need anything?"

"I'm lonely over there too. You don't mind if I join you right?"

Sakura smiled, crossing her arms and tilted her head. "How come a hunk like you would be lonely? Whom are you waiting for anyway?"

He gave a scoff and waved his hand. "I'm not waiting for anyone." Sakura noticed that he was glancing at the entrance nervously as he looked back at Sakura again. "And I'm not a hunk. You flattered me." He gave a chortled laugh.

'_Hunk my ass.' _Sakura followed and gave a laugh too.

"My name is Shane, what's yours?" He placed his elbow on the table.

"Sakura." She replied. There's utterly no need for her to say her full name.

"I hear you hadn't got some great sex lately." Shane said, resting his chin on his palm.

"Oh… You are eavesdropping me huh?" Sakura raised an amused eyebrow.

Shane shrugged before leaning towards Sakura. "I can give you one, and you'll never be lonely." Shane then placed his hand over Sakura's hand and started playing with her fingers.

'_Sakura…Sakura… endure endure...'_

Sakura gave a giggle. "You sure you can satisfy me?"

"Why not?" He smirked.

Sakura smirked back.

0o0

"You mean… Sakura went to confront that man herself?"

Hinata nodded quickly, grabbing onto her blouse. They were both standing outside the store while a staff had helped Sasori to take over his shift. Sasori had known everything, including the _man_ that he was referring to.

It seemed Hinata trusted Sasori just like Sakura. Even though they officially talked less than ten minutes, Hinata felt really comfortable and easy to tell Sasori then telling it to Kiba.

"That girl…" Sasori mentally face palmed.

"I wanted t-to tell you about t-this earlier but S-Sakura forbids me t-to tell you a-anything. But I-I can't be that selfish a-anymore. Sakura might be i-in danger if she's alone with h-him…"

Sasori clutched his fists till his knuckles turned white.

'_That pink-hair brat really doesn't know what kind of danger she's heading to.'_

"Where's she?" He asked.

"A-At a café just o-opposite our school." Hinata mumbled, looking at Sasori nervously.

Sasori closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He really felt like strangling Sakura and knocking some sense into her head. Sure, she's a great friend, and she had the duty to protect her friends, but the problem is, she didn't even know what she could help, and how much she could sacrifice for her friends.

"She told me to wait for her phone cal-"

"She's at the café opposite the school right?" He asked again.

"Eh?" Hinata was startled for a second, but she quickly regained her composure. "Yes, she-"

But before Hinata could even finish her sentence for the second time, Sasori had already sprinted off.

0o0

"Thank you."

As Shane opened the door for Sakura to get in the car, he walked around the black car after closing it for her and get into the driver's seat.

While both of them were buckling their seat belt, Sakura turned and faced Shane. "I really can't wait what interesting ways you'll do to satisfy me." Sakura gave a soft giggle.

Shane smirked, leaning towards her and stroking her smooth cheeks. "Wait and you'll see. I can't wait either."

Sakura gave a shiver as she forced a smile. She sat back on her seat uncomfortably and stared in space. Her plan was currently working, and she just had to make her last move at the hotel. The pinkette sighed inwardly.

"Brat!"

"Let's go." Shane said, starting the car.

Sakura smiled and nodded, staring outside the window.

"Oi, you brat!"

Sasori started running, yelling for Sakura as she crossed the road. There was quite a distance between the car and himself when he shouted, and it's impossible for her to hear him at all.

After crossing the road, the car had already made a turn out of the car park, speeding down the road. Sasori started to slow down to catch his breathe, helplessly watching the car driving off.

"Beep!"

Sasori stepped back as a cab sped off right in front of him. He widened his eyes and began waving like a mad person for the cab. The driver seemed to notice Sasori as it slowed down, waiting for the redhead to catch up with it.

He flung open the door and got in, pointing at the black car that was so much further away from them.

"Follow that car!" He almost shouted, waiting as patiently as he could for them to reach the destination.

0o0

It was a cheap hotel. That's what Sakura could infer.

And from the amount this bastard had been blackmailing others for money, he had earn much more than paying the rent for the hotel.

'_That fuckhead.' _Sakura clutched her fist while trying to keep the bright smile on her face. Shane just finished registering his name for the hotel rent as he took the keys, turning to face Sakura.

"Here's the key." Shane waved it in front of Sakura's face while Sakura giggled flirtatiously. He placed his arm over Sakura's shoulder as they slowly approached the lift, and just in time, there was one already open just for them.

Sasori pushed open the glass door and glanced around the small hall, and immediately, he spotted Sakura's signature pink hair with a man that he never met before. He was about to rush up to them but the lift door had already closed behind them and it was too late.

Sasori rushed forward and looked at the electronic figures, the number increasing every second.

The lift reached the tenth floor.

The redhead presses rapidly for the lift but it seemed to him that it was moving extremely slow, stopping at almost each level when it descends down. He bit his lips in frustration and looked around again, spotting an emergency staircase.

He had some workout to do.

In a second, Sasori sprinted towards the stairs and swiftly climbed up two steps at one time. He didn't have a time to lose, every second now means a lot to him.

0o0

Shane unlocked the door quickly, bringing Sakura inside as well. The pinkette had suddenly become tensed and nervous as she looked around the small bedroom; there's a double bed in the middle of the room, a television in front, a small table right beside and a bathroom at the corner. No windows, no pictures, frame or nice lightings to boost up the atmosphere.

This was totally not the place to lose her virginity.

Sakura stepped forward and looked around, placing her bag at the corner of the room. Shane walked towards the table and placed his phone and the brown envelope.

In the car, Sakura had been praying during the entire journey that Shane would bring along the envelope along with him to the hotel, and he really did. Sakura didn't know why, but she guessed that he was afraid it would be stolen or misplaced when he put it in the car instead.

Shane started moving closer to Sakura till he shoved her to the bed. He bent down and began smooching on Sakura neck as she began screaming in her head.

'_Remain calm Sakura. Remain Calm!'_

"You stink." Sakura pushed Shane away as he stepped back, looking at her and raising an eyebrow.

"I think you should bathe first. I can smell you, and it's pretty gross." Sakura waved her hand in front of her nose.

'_Actually, it's not just your smell. Everything about you is gross and it utterly disgust me.'_ Sakura said inwardly.

"Fine then, you can rest here for a while. I'll take a quick bathe. Be prepared." Shane winked, walking towards the bathroom.

Sakura watched at the door closed behind him as she quickly got up to her feet. She trudged towards the table and glanced at the phone and the brown envelope.

"Phone." She whispered to herself.

She picked up the silvered colored phone and started messing it around, trying to find the gallery that maybe filled with the pictures she's finding.

'_Aha!'_ Sakura smiled to herself, finally finding what she was looking for. She pressed the button and scrolled down the screen, looking through all those photos of nudity and porn pictures of different girls, including Hinata.

_'That sick-minded bastard! He should really die.'_ Sakura shook her head, looking at all the photos and the number of girls suffering all because of him. She quickly searched for the button and started deleting all the photos in the phone.

"Are you sure you want to delete all the photos?"

'_Fuck yes.'_ Sakura screamed in her head and pressed on the button.

As Sakura waited patiently for the photos to be deleted one by one, she picked up the brown envelope and tore the tape, revealing the content. It was all the disgusting photos that made Hinata suffered like hell lately. The pinkette gritted her teeth and taped back the cover, giving a last glance at the phone.

"All photos had been deleted."

Sakura grinned, clutching the photos tightly to herself and rushed towards her bag. But before she could even do that, the bathroom door suddenly clicked.

Sakura froze.

"I was thinking, why don't you bathe with m-" He stepped out of the room, halfway undressing as he paused for a moment and widened his eyes.

"Where the fuck are you going?"

Sakura bit her lips and grabbed onto the door handle, but her hair was yanked back in a second as she gave a loud yelp. The contents in the envelope spilled onto the floor, revealing all the nasty photos that Sakura would be glad to get rid of.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Shane repeated, glaring at her and the photos on the ground.

"Let go of me!" Sakura shouted, trying to pull Shane's hand away.

He pulled her back and threw her against the wall. She stumbled and hit her back, dropping onto the floor as her trembling legs gave way.

"Like all bitches who ran away, it's better if you don't escape. Then, I'll be a little more gentler to you." He smirked as he began tugging out his thin jacket and walked slowly towards her.

"Go away!" Sakura screamed, pushing him off and tried to stand up, but her legs went numb as she falls heavily on the ground again.

"No use. It's no use. My dear Sakura."

"GO AWAY!" She screamed, glaring at him with two of her menacing eyes. Her legs just wouldn't listen to her, she couldn't move yet she could still shout and scream, but it was fruitless. No matter how loud she yelled, no one would ever hear her begging screams…

"Brat!" The voice yelled outside the room. It was faint, yet clear.

"Brat!" It was getting louder.

"S-Sasori!" Sakura turned her head towards the door and her face immediately brightened with hope.

Shane knew something was amiss when he noticed how Sakura reacted to the voice outside. He immediately went to cover Sakura's mouth to avoid her from shouting for help.

"Brat!"

"Saso-" Sakura widened her eyes after Shane covered her mouth. She quickly tried to pull his hand away from her mouth. If she didn't call for help now, she'll be doomed.

"Umff!" Sakura shake her head vigorously while pulling Shan's hand away weakly. Her strength and energy were slowly draining away from her.

She had to scream for his name. She had to!

Using the remaining energy she had, she slowly lifted her legs and aimed for Shane's crotch. Unknown to him, Sakura gave a mightiest kick as he stumbled back and fall onto the ground, urging himself not to scream.

"Sasori! Sasori!" She turned weakly and tried her best to crawl towards the door while Shane was still busy yelping in pain.

"Sasori!" She gave a loud piercing scream.

"B-"

Sasori slowly stopped running and started walking instead. He stopped calling and turned around, staring down the long corridor. He knew he heard his name being called, but which room?

"You whore." Shane stood up, still holding onto his crotch as he pulled Sakura back with her hair. Sakura yelped loudly as she was being thrown to the ground again. Shane quickly walked forward and locked the door before trudging towards Sakura, with an evil smug on his face. Sakura wanted to back away but she officially doesn't have any energy left.

"S-Sasori!" She gave one final scream before receiving a slap from Shane.

Shane grabbed Sakura by the arm and pulled her to the bed, starting to tear Sakura's blouse, revealing most of her skin on the side of her arm. She started to cry, kicking and struggling as hard as she could but to no avail. Shane began unbuttoning his first button of his shirt while smooching onto Sakura's neck.

Sakura tried her best to push him off but it was no use. She wanted to scream, but all that came out from her mouth was just sobs and hiccups.

The redhead narrowed his eyes, finally knowing where the source of the voice came from. He briskly walked to the door just nearby, raising his hand and began knocking.

"Brat? You in there?"

Shane froze after trying to unbutton his second button. He spun around and stared at the banging door. He looked around and started to panic, but he wasn't going to back down. His attention went to a few objects on the table as he swiftly grabbed the glass bowl that was for the used cigarettes and ashes.

Sasori began banging louder and louder, noticing how quiet it was inside. He used his shoulder and began hitting onto the door. A few guests noticed how noisy it was outside as they came out and looked, pointing at Sasori and began to mutter among themselves.

With one final blow, the door was smashed open as it revealed the entire scene inside. Shane then rushed forward with the bowl in his hand, wanting to smash Sasori's head with it. But the redhead was fast. Sasori grabbed Shane's hand and took the bowl from his weak grip, throwing it to the other side of the room.

Sasori then glanced at Sakura, who was crawling weakly towards the corner of the room as her blouse was torn and her skirt was almost ripped.

He frowned deeply, glaring at the man right before him while Shane was shocked and frozen to do anything. In a second, Sasori swing his arm and punched Shane, throwing him back and to the ground.

Shane crawled back quickly, wanting to pick up some shattered glass and attacked Sasori but the redhead trudged forward and stepped onto his hand that was about to reach for the glass.

"Ow!"

"You fucker. You've messed with the wrong person." The redhead muttered, narrowing his chocolate brown eyes.

Shane tensed at how harsh and scary his tone was. He slowly looked up and gave a weak smile. "It was a misunderstanding. It really was!" Shane yelled, trying to pull his hand off under Sasori's feat.

The redhead bent forward and grabbed onto Shane's collar, pulling him up from the floor. "Forgive me!" The man squealed, clutching both of his hand together and begged for forgiveness.

He scoffed, preparing to give another punch again when Shane interrupted his movement.

"I-I will never touch your woman a-again, I swear!" He cried out, giving a desperate look while Sasori raised his arm.

Sasori stopped his action; his arm remained in the air without striking, as if time had frozen. He was trying to register what that bastard had just said.

"_I will never touch your woman again."_

Noticing that Sasori was in his line of thoughts, Shane quickly stepped back, grabbing his phone that was on the table and ran out of the hotel room without even picking up the photos on the ground, only leaving the stunned Sasori and petrified Sakura in the room.

From the very first moment when Sasori entered the room, the only thing he wanted to do was to beat up or kill the man that actually hurt Sakura. He didn't think much but just acted recklessly.

It wasn't his character; he knew it wasn't his character.

If it was his usual self, he would complain about how women were so weak and troublesome. Then, he would just stand there, watching what was really happening before taking action; in a slow and casual manner, Sasori swore he really would.

The redhead only regained back his composure a few seconds after the guy had ran out. He slowly put down his hand and whirled around, staring at Sakura who was still shaking after the incident.

He bit his lips, walking a few tentative steps forward before squatting in front of Sakura. The said girl was hugging both of her knees tightly; trembling with every breath she took.

"B-Brat, are you alright?" He asked, but he never expected Sakura to reply.

Sasori took out his hand, wanting to pat on Sakura's shoulder and comfort her. But before he did, the redhead immediately halted, retreating his hand slowly and back to his side. He just lowered his head and stared at Sakura's feet.

He choose to keep silent for the entire minute, without speaking or moving until Sakura made a move first. He didn't want any sarcastic remarks to slip out from his tongue to only make matters worse. He still remembered his friend Kakuzu telling Hidan when they were at a funeral.

"_If you don't have any freaking nice things to say, keep your mouth shut."_

They never moved for a whole minute, only until Sakura spoke then Sasori looked up

"Sasori…" She muttered; looking up and revealing her dried tear lines and swollen eyes.

The redhead softened his gaze and sighed. "Stupid… Don't do that ever again. You aren't a superwoman." He mumbled, trying to pick the correct words to say.

"Sasori…" That's what all Sakura said. She carried on repeating and repeating his name, only breaking down and crying again afterwards, jumping forward and hugged onto Sasori.

"Sasori!" She cried out again, hugging him tightly and refused to let go. If it wasn't for him, she could have been raped and even threatened just like Hinata who had been suffering for so many days.

She wanted to save her own friend, but no matter what she do, Sasori always helped her in the end. Just like the incident with Naruto.

'_Stupid Sasori…'_

Sasori silently listened to her sobs and the fast beating of her heartbeat against his chest. He wanted to push her away, but he knew it would be the dumbest thing to do in that situation.

The redhead sighed inwardly, lifting his hand and pat onto Sakura's back repeatedly. That's how guys comfort girls when they were hugging, right?

He's still learning after all.

A few minutes ticked by and a few guests in the hotel began crowding around the door, wondering what on earth happened to the two of them. But they didn't care or move, not even a bit.

How long had they been remaining in that position? Sasori didn't know. But the weird thing was, he didn't want to let go.

* * *

Author's Note:

The day after tomorrow, I'm getting my exam results. Writing now for stress reliving XD

I'm currently doing the next chapter. So keep a look out :) And don't forget to review!

-Pocky


	8. Pride

Goodbye Apathy

"Pretty much like this." Tsunade spoke. Everyone's attention in the cafeteria was straight at the loudspeakers that were hung at the entrance of the canteen.

"The homecoming dance is organize by the town council and other two different school in town would be joining us as well." Everyone began muttering among themselves; girls squealing within their own clique while the guys were groaned.

"There would be judges to choose the homecoming queen and her dance partner in the event. Therefore, the winner will be on the news cover page."

More girls started shrieking, tugging on their boyfriend's shirt and smiling very eagerly at them. Every girl would definitely want to be the homecoming queen, letting everyone and especially their friends to be jealous for her.

"However, this isn't compulsory." Tsunade shouted through the microphone, nodded silently in her office when she could predict how the boys would react when they hear the joyful news. "It's up to you if you want to join, but please don't make a fool out of yourself in the dance. Clear?"

The shouting and laughter blasted through the entire canteen and everyone started talking and planning what dresses they would be wearing. No doubt, all the girls were thinking that they would win the place for the queen.

"More details about the dance would be pinned up on the notice board tomorrow. Thank you." Afterwards, there was just silence behind the microphones; Tsunade had end her speech.

Every year, there would be beauty contest or prom held in Sakura's school. As Sakura was the head girl, she had to prepare all the props, finding helpers and such for the big event in school and she had barely the amount of time to join in the fun as well. She could only watch the occasion at the backstage happily, holding a bottle of water while the others were probably eating some nice cakes out there.

But this was definitely special. Tsunade had never agreed to held such a big event in town with two other different schools. Furthermore, all the schools claimed themselves to be a sort of rivals. Since Tsunade never informed her the duties, the principle perhaps agreed to this because she knew that Sakura had never taken a break for such occasion, and this was a chance for her.

Oh boy, she couldn't wait.

"Ino, you'll definitely be on the list, wouldn't you?" Tenten nudged the blonde that was sitting silently beside her clique, while the others were still not settling down even after a whole minute had passed after Tsunade had announced the news.

"Um hmm." She nodded silently. Tenten stared at her weirdly before turning around and talked to Neji who was eating his food and completely ignoring the news that was just made public.

'_I can't win…'_ Ino thought, glancing at her previous best friend who was sitting at the corner of the cafeteria; the pinkette was staring at the loudspeaker blankly after hearing the news before looking at the redhead sitting in front of her.

'_I can't win, if she won't help me…' _Ino gritted her teeth.

"Hinata, are you going to join? With Kiba?" Sakura winked at her best friend.

"I-I don't know if I'll be f-free." Hinata shifted in her seat uneasily.

It had been a month since the incident was over. Both Kiba and Hinata immediately went forward to apologize to Sasori on the very next morning while Sakura stayed at home to recover. Especially Kiba, he repeatedly asked for forgiveness when he was so mean to Sasori previously. It was a surprise to Sakura and Hinata since he usually won't apologize even when he was at fault.

Then a few days later, Hinata and Kiba stepped out from Naruto's group and went forward to Sakura and Sasori, willing to be their friends again. It was a surprise to Sakura and she happily accepted them, while Sasori didn't really care, until when Hinata started became more closer to him, giving him the wrong idea.

_"Would you like to try my bento?" _

It was a surprise, but she didn't stutter in front of Sasori for the very first time. Sasori just awkwardly agreed, eating some food from her bento. He had to admit, it was very delicious. But he'll never say it out.

"_Sakura, want to c-catch a movie?" _

Hinata took out a ticket to the latest premier movie in town. Sakura immediately agreed to it as she really needed a break from her school life. It wasn't much of a problem, hanging out with her best friend was a usual thing, but the problem was…

_"S-Sasori, I had an extra ticket, would you want to come along?"_

It slightly stunned him for a while, but when Sakura went to explain to him, saying that Hinata was just trying to be friendly to him. The Hyuuga knew he was a good guy and was not like what other people had said about him, but she had utterly no interest in him; since she actually had a crush on Kiba too. That calmed him for a while. But all he requested Sakura was to tell Hinata that she didn't have to do that.

Of course, she didn't tell Hinata about it, since it was Sakura's mission after all. She wanted other people to accept him and she's currently doing great. It's that if she had to sacrifice that much just to gain a friend or two for Sasori; which would be too much. Sakura just has to go it easy then.

Sakura turned and looked at Sasori. "Then Sasori-"

"No."

"You haven't even finished listening to my question."

Sasori didn't even know why he was sitting here, watching the three of his_ friends_ eating and talking about the dance when he could have been in the classroom sleeping, but everyone was banned from staying back in class after having all those phones stolen during break.

"Then Sakura, are you going?" Kiba looked at Sakura as Hinata nodded along the way. Sasori was glancing at the huge clock in the canteen, only shifting his gaze and onto Sakura when Kiba said the question. He didn't know why he bothers, but he really wants to know the answer too.

"I don't know, maybe?" Sakura shrugged, going back to drink her beverage.

0o0

"Hey Sakura!" It was the second time she heard the dismissal bell rang again, the school were still filled with those slackers that refused to go home and rather hang out in school library and all the corners of the school. Hinata and Kiba had already gone home while Sasori had gone to his part-time work like everyday.

The pinkette froze, whirling around swiftly to see Ino, skipping towards her happily, almost too happy.

"Oh, hi." She muttered, looking very suspiciously at Ino. The first thing that struck her mind was about the homecoming dance.

"I'm really sorry about last time Sakura." Ino stepped forward, waving her arms in the air. "It's been like two months, could you just forgive me? I won't do that again." Ino placed her hand by her side before stepping even closer to Sakura while the pinkette remained on the ground.

"I hope you are really sorry." Sakura scoffed, looking at Ino wearily as she had a long day at school. She has to visit Granny Chiyo today.

"Of course I am… we are still friends aren't we?" Ino smiled.

Sakura twitched her lips, wanting to smile as while but she just couldn't. She sighed inwardly, just nodding her head. She's used to it already, maybe she could just forgive Ino for the very last time…

"Great then." Ino winked, wanting to put her arm around her best friend. "Then you should come back with Hinata and Kiba to us, you can leave that replacement alone."

"What replacement?" Sakura raised her volume, slowly slapping her arm away.

"You clearly know what I meant." Ino stared at her and gave an obvious look.

"If you were thinking that Sasori is a replacement, then you are very wrong." Sakura frowned deeply, glaring at Ino as she continued.

"I'm not someone who take advantage of my friends when I was alone or needed their help, only kicking them aside when they have no use. That's not what I call true friends. That's call selfish, and only bitches would do that." Sakura crossed her arm, looking at Ino down her nose.

"Who are you calling a bitch?" Ino yelled, earning a few glances from her schoolmates.

"I didn't say you are. You just admit it yourself." Sakura said casually, shrugging as well.

"Whatever." Ino gritted her teeth and shook her head, swinging her long hair left and right. "We are best friends, I felt so miserable without you." Ino begged.

"Oh really? You felt miserable?" Sakura scoffed, laughing afterwards. "If it wasn't for the homecoming dance, you wouldn't even talk to me." Sakura narrowed her eyes. "I thought you had a new best friend who asked you to parties, lent you thousand of clothes, introduced you to all the boys in town and goes shopping with you every weekend? The leader of the Sasuke fan-club, Karin?" Sakura stomped forward while Ino stepped back.

"You just wanted me to help you to put those make-ups for you, wasn't it? I would guess it was because my skills were better than Karin, if not you wouldn't even say sorry to me, not even in a million years." Sakura spat.

"You've changed." Ino shook her head, pretending to look innocent when a few boys past them by.

"I didn't change." Sakura scoffed unbelievingly, throwing her bag on the floor in frustration. "It's just because I didn't live the way you wanted, you said I've changed."

"I know now…" Ino nodded her head slowly. "Sasori must have influenced you; to changed you so much. You made friends with other people and now you blamed me for everything?" Ino raised her volume, following Sakura as she threw her bag on the floor as well.

"Sasori is not _other people_." Sakura scoffed. "I'm no one's property, and clearly not yours." Sakura glared at the blonde. "I have the right to make whatever friend I want, I don't need you to tell me what to do and who to be friends with. I didn't even blamed you for making friends with Karin, it's just that you are using me when I have some use to you and I'm really angry because of that."

"Fine!" Ino grabbed her bag on the ground, kicking Sakura's light pink bag hardly as it slides on the dirty ground and to a dustbin. "I'll prove that I can win this dance by myself. You don't have anything Sakura. I have all the back up and you have nothing! I'll win you. I swear on my life!" Ino cried out, urging herself not to slap Sakura in front of anyone as she stomped of the building.

Everyone was staring at the two of them until Ino had left the school. Sakura sighed, thanking at a girl who kindly picked up her bag and handed it to her.

0o0

"I couldn't wait! It's held next week!"

"I hope I could win."

"Excuse me Excuse me, let the queen pass through." Ino shouted, pushing a few girls aside while some of them glared at Ino's attitude. The blonde stood right in front of the poster, smiling to herself confidently. This year's homecoming queen was hers, no doubt.

"You can't win." Ino spoke out loud, interrupting a girl that was just telling her friend what dress she'll wear if she was on the newspaper. "I'll be the queen and I'll show it to all of you." Ino laughed. The two other schoolmates looked at Ino and rolled their eyes, moving away from her.

"Oh really Ino?" Sakura raised an amused eyebrow. "I highly doubt so. There are two other schools that we don't know and I'm pretty sure there are more babes than us in this school. And pretty much, you can't win. At least I might have a chance." Sakura smirked, stepping forward and stood beside Ino.

"Since when you were so confident, Forehead?" Ino looked at Sakura in disdain.

"I was always confident." Sakura rolled her eyes at Ino. The pinkette stepped back, allowing a few others to look at the poster too.

"I'll be going to the dance, and I'll definitely win the position of the homecoming queen. When I do, you better don't crawl back and beg me when I made your popularity in this school dropped like some shit in the toilet." Ino faked a laugh while Sakura followed and faked a laugh as well.

"Don't worry, just remember not to slip and fell off the stage when you are getting the prize. I'm very sure that I still have the photo of you falling down the stage for last year school's homecoming dance." Sakura smirked.

Ino opened her mouth wide before calming herself down, counting one to ten in her head and looked at Sakura, trying to find some ways to win this arguing contest. "Oh no worries, I'll bring you up as well, if we fall, we'll fall together."

"I'm flattered, but I don't want to stand beside a pig right in front of the news cover page."

"You-"

"Ino, you are obviously owned. You should stop talking crap, you're polluting the air." Kiba stepped forward, along with Hinata that was standing closely behind him.

"I'll deal with you bullshit later, now stay out of this and eat a bone somewhere." Ino glared at him, pointing at Kiba angrily.

"I swear I'll-"

"What is the commotion all about? The bell has rung already, go back to class." Shizune made a face as she stomped forward at the throng of people crowding around the notice board. Ino put down her hand and stomped off, returning back to her class.

Sakura, Kiba and Hinata followed along with the crowed that were still talking about Ino and Sakura's argument. They just quickly departed to their own classes before they go to detention just because they were late for class. These days, teachers seems to be on PMS or having a bad mood for no particular reason.

0o0

"What's with you and that blonde girl?" Sasori gave a bored look at Sakura who was leaning against a shelf, browsing through a magazine in her hand. "Nothing." Sakura glanced up for a quick moment before looking back at the dresses in the magazine, she stared at the all the dresses price for a second, only flipping to the next page as she realized that the numbers for the price were mostly three digits.

Sakura decided to follow Sasori to the bookstore, read some books just to get rid of those things in her head, but in the end, she ended up looking for dresses for the dance. Surprisingly, Sasori was uncomfortable when Sakura was being so quiet for the entire day, he didn't want to admit it, but he really want to know how was she feeling and what she was thinking right now.

Sasori stared at her for a couple of seconds, turning his attention to what Sakura was reading until he realized what she was thinking about. Since she wasn't really a rich girl who could afford such an expensive new dress, it would be a trouble for her if she still couldn't get a dress. This announcement for the dance was too sudden thus she didn't manage to save that huge amount of money for it.

"So you really want to go." He muttered, leaning against the chair.

Sakura raised her head, staring at Sasori then at the magazine. She walked slowly towards the counter and threw the weekly on the table, giving a sigh.

"I'm so going to win. I'll win." She huffed angrily.

"Then just get some dress you have now." He stated so easily without thinking.

"These kind of pretty dresses are supposed to be worn once." Sakura gave an obvious look at Sasori. "And even if I can afford those clothes, what about my make-ups?" Sakura turned and leaned against the counter, staring outside the shop.

"I thought you girls love to put on make-ups." He took the magazine and look through it, widening his eyes a little when he noticed the price for the dresses.

Sakura shook her head, followed by a snort. "I know how to put on make-ups for other people, but not myself. Do you know that it needed skills as well?" She crossed her arm. "All I know is to put blushes on my face, it's difficult for me to do all those eye lashes and stuffs on my own."

Sasori didn't bother listening to Sakura, rumbling about what, eye shadows and things. He just casually picked up his phone and began scrolling for his contact list number, only pressing for the dial when he found the person he wanted to contact.

"And also about the-" Sakura spun around, staring curiously at Sasori as he was waiting for the receiver to pick up the phone.

"Who are you calling?" She frowned.

Sasori just answered her by putting his finger on his lips before tapping his feet impatiently afterwards.

"_Hello? This is Konan."_

Sasori straightened his posture, glancing at Sakura for a second and continued his conversation.

"I need your help."

"_Wow, I thought you were pretty stubborn to ask anyone for help."_

Sasori gave an inward sigh. "Can I come over in ten minutes?"

"_Sure. I'm free anyway." _She replied.

After finishing their exchange, he hung up and stared at the clock on the wall and then at Sakura.

"I have a break for twenty minutes long, are you free now?" He said in a monotone.

"Uh, yeah." Sakura replied, giving a suspicious look.

0o0

"R-Really?" Sakura rubbed her hand in glee, smiling very brightly. "I never thought you had a friend that is a girl." Sakura winked at Sasori.

"Are you going or not?" Sasori snorted.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Sakura made a face, briskly jaywalking across the road. They walked quite a distance from the shopping centre until they reached the rows of houses neatly arranged down the street. Sasori walked towards the one closest to the road as he rang the bell impatiently.

"I didn't know you would help me." Sakura beamed as the gate began to open.

"I just want to use up your three I-want-to-do-stupid-things lists as quickly as possible."

"You know, you really don't have to phrase it that way." Sakura gave a sidelong glance at him.

As the gate opened automatically, Sasori just entered the house while Sakura followed closely behind, taking off her shoe and placed it neatly outside before entering the house quietly.

"You're here." A blue-haired lady walked out from a room, looking at Sasori first then at the pinkette who was shyly standing behind him.

"What are you doing?" Sasori stared at Sakura who was standing closely behind him.

"Er…" She stepped out behind the redhead, looking at Konan and tried to overcome her shyness as she smiled merrily. "I'm Sakura, Haruno Sakura."

"Konan, nice to meet you." Konan gave a small smile as well.

Sakura deeply admired this woman, even if their age difference might be different; the sort of elegance and maturity given out by Konan was magnificent. She still couldn't believe Sasori actually know such a nice lady.

"You probably heard about the homecoming dance in town. Practically, she wanted to join but she don't have the things she needed for it." Sasori briefly explained

"It isn't call _things_."

"So you are going?" Konan widened his eyes in surprise.

"Aren't you? Is your school around this district?" Sakura tilted her head.

"Not really. Even if it is, I don't really feel like going." She gave a little shrug. "So, you need my help for the dance?"

Sakura nodded her head excitedly.

"I don't know why you girls always bother so much about pride. It wouldn't hurt you if you lose." Sasori added while Sakura nudged his stomach angrily.

"That why if you ever court a girl, you'll never win her heart. You don't even understand us." Sakura teased.

"You should be going, you can leave her under my care." Konan waved a gesture, asking him to leave right away. He looked at the small clock on the table, realizing he have ten more minutes left before heading back to the store.

"I'll be going then." He muttered, heading towards the door. Konan gave a soft laugh, taking by Sakura's hand. "You can leave the door open, Sasori." Right afterwards, she looked at Sakura and pulled her to a room, opening the door and closing it behind them.

Sasori was left in the hall, glancing at every corner before slowly heading out of the house, leaving the door open like what Konan had told him to.

0o0

"Let's choose what you are going to wear before deciding on the make-ups." Konan smiled, pulling her to stand in front of the large cupboard. She pulled the two handle and opened the huge cupboard, revealing a huge set of clothes hanging

"Oh my Kami…" Sakura gasped, looking at all the different type of beautiful dresses filling up the space in the cabinet.

"It's so beautiful…" Sakura walked forward, touching a long light purple dress hanging just near her.

"It's rather simple and plain though." Konan said sheepishly.

"But I like it!" Sakura cried out, feeling the cloth. "I really like it... Where do you buy it anyway?" She asked.

"I've made it myself."

Sakura stepped back, cupping her hand over her mouth and squealed. "How do you do that?"

Konan gave a gentle laugh, looking at Sakura. "My mom taught me these skills when I was young and slowly, it became my hobby." Konan stepped forward and stood beside Sakura, smoothing the soft silk of another dull peach dress. "Making origami is my favorite out of all the things I learnt from my mother."

"Such a talent…" Sakura frowned, staring at all the dresses in the cabinet. "The only thing my mum is good in is just nagging all day."

Konan gave a soft laugh, before taking the dull peach dress that she was caressing for a while from the closet and placed it in front of Sakura. "The colour doesn't really match your fair skin and hair."

Haruno take a little peek at herself as she nodded her head in agreement.

Konan shuffled the dress and as Sakura stepped forward, picking the courage to search for a dress she likes as well.

"If you find one that fits you for the dance, I can give it to you."

"R-Really?" Sakura squealed happily.

Konan gave a small nod, continuing taking some other dresses to see if it was suitable for Sakura. They continued repeating the process until Konan break Sakura's line of thoughts.

"Sakura, have you got yourself a partner?"

She blinked, looking up from a black dress and stared at Konan.

"I-I guess not." She said, totally embarrassed. If she did not get a partner for the dance, all Konan's effort would be a waste.

"Then, is Sasori going to the homecoming dance?"

Sakura didn't know how this question linked with the previous one, but she didn't ask.

"It wasn't compulsory though, but based on his character, I would guess he wouldn't go."

"True." Konan nodded slowly, looking at her feet. She then looked up and at Sakura, smiling a little confidently.

"But you can ask Sasori to be your partner for the dance." Konan suggested.

Sakura jaw dropped, tilting her head at the same time. "Do you mean Sasori might know how to dance?"

"He had learnt it for a month. I think he still knows how to."

"What do you mean by thinking that he still knows how to?"

"It's been years since he last learnt it; for a girl." Konan spoke in a whisper as if there were people around them.

Sakura gave a loud chortled laugh, wiping a tear embarrassedly afterwards. "I-I'm sorry." Sakura gave another laugh again. "I'm sorry Konan-san, but I refuse to believe it. Him? Doing it for a girl? I dare not imagine." Sakura waved her hand at Konan.

The mature woman sighed, giving a small gentle smile. "I know you wouldn't believe it. Based on his character and personality that he is showing to everybody, no one would believe he'd do that."

"Showing to everybody?" Sakura stopped her giggling, seriously paying attention to what Konan wanted to say.

Konan remained silent for a couple of seconds, debating if she should tell Sakura, but in the end, she still did.

"Years ago, Sasori and Deidara fell in love with the same girl in our school."

"What- He- Sasori… fell in love?" Sakura could almost shouted; her ears must be lying to her. The first news that Konan said was already unbelievable, and now… this?

Konan just gave a nod. "That year, there was a prom held in our school and both of them were determined to ask her be their date. Since they never learnt dancing before, they made up their mind in learning how to dance for that prom night, just for that girl to accept one of them." Konan hunched a little, remember what exactly happened during the days when they were together.

"And finally, the competition ended and the girl picked one."

"Who won?" Sakura straightened her posture, eyes brightened a little. Konan leaned against the door of the cabinet, rubbing her arm for a while.

Sakura couldn't debate who could have won. Sasori and Deidara were indeed, both good looking. Even though Sakura didn't really want to admit it, she was mesmerized countless times by Sasori's beautiful eyes.

Perhaps it was Sa-

"Deidara won."

Sakura heart skipped a beat; a shiver went down her spine as she heard whom the winner was.

"People thought Sasori would easily get over it just like other people that were in a relationship. But he was greatly affected by this." Konan stepped a few steps forward, sitting on the bed just in front of the cabinet.

"You may think he's a little sexist, saying all women in this world are troublesome, and problematic. The thing was, he was just afraid to get close to any girls from then onwards, so he kept pushing everyone away when we tries to set up a few blind dates for him, but he usually escape afterwards."

"I guess he was just afraid to get hurt again."

Sakura bit her lips, feeling so awkward all of the sudden. Sure, she might find Sasori a little rude and such, but despite all those negative points about him, Sakura could somehow, slowly understand him bit by bit.

"I'm telling you all this because I can see Sasori is rather close to you." Konan glinted her eyes before smiling at Sakura. "And also, to remind you to keep in mind of what you say in the future, so you'll be a little aware of Sasori's feeling."

"_That why if you ever court a girl, you'll never win her heart."_

'_Me and my goddamn mouth!'_

"A week later, Deidara left the girl, only realizing she was just using Sasori and him to gain her own popularity. He felt guilty, hurting Sasori that time. So the two of them swore that they would not fall in love with the same girl again."

"I didn't know such things happened to him." Sakura whispered to herself.

"He doesn't show how he truly feels, so I was hoping someday, a person like you can be more closer to him, trying to make him talk. Since we are transferred to different schools, it's hard to do that now." Konan sighed, standing up from her bed and trudged towards the cabinet, still finding a new dress.

Sakura bit her lips, only daring herself to step beside Konan and started looking for a dress again.

0o0

"See you tomorrow."

Sasori nodded his head to reply to his colleague. Remembering the time, he knew that he still have half an hour before he needed to go to the restaurant to work.

He stood outside the mall, watching all the people going in and out of the shopping centre carrying many plastic bags. A few couple were walking or strolling down the street as they became very close together. Sasori just took out his phone, stared at the screen, not knowing what to do now.

Sasori didn't even know why was he helping her to win. Didn't he say he find everything a bother to him, that everything girls do are pointless? These past two months, they had been spending more time with each other than other people; In the past, he might feel really uneasy and might go to an extend that he could have skipped school just to avoid her. But now, he had this urge to go to school just to see this pinkette, walking around, scolding and reprimanding everyone when they did something stupid.

Something was wrong with him, what on earth was happening to him?

He continued walking; a slow walk to Konan house, just to see how everything was. One and a half hour had passed after he left her house; perhaps Sakura was still there.

As he reached, he moved the gate, realizing it was not locked like the way he had left. Sasori entered the house, noticing Sakura's shoes were still inside. He opened the door and walked in, looking around too see how quiet the house was.

"It's beautiful!" A sudden voice interrupts.

Sasori turned, staring at the door of a room that Sakura and Konan had previously entered. He stepped a few steppes forward, clutching onto his sling bag as he grabbed the doorknob, turning it silently and pushed it opened.

"You're really beautiful." Konan repeated as Sakura made a second turn while standing on the same spot. Her white strapless cocktail dress moved as she danced, a black ribbon tying at her waist, showing her nice figure while she moves.

Her pretty long eye lashes fluttered whenever she blinked, the eye drop made her green eyes looked more brighter and clearer than before, and her cheeks looked even rosier and brighter, the light pink lip gloss glimmered as she made a cute smile. Her high heels also made her even taller, almost the same height of Sasori.

"Sasori?" Konan called out, noticing a figure standing at the door.

Sakura looked up, staring at Sasori as he was staring blankly at Sakura, as if she had hypnotized him.

"Sasori." She stepped forward, snapping her fingers right in front of his face. Right there, he finally jolted out form his thoughts, looking back at Konan weirdly.

"What is it?" That's all he said, he seems annoyed to be distracted.

"How is it?" Konan stepped back, gesturing at Sakura as the pinkette looked down at her dress, tiptoeing a little before getting back to her feet excitedly.

"Passable." He slouched, turning his gaze at the cabinet.

"Passable?" Sakura frowned. Deep down, she thought Sasori would give her a better score.

Konan nudged her, giving a thumbs up. "If he meant by passable, it means perfect." She gave a little smirk before looking at Sasori, speaking once again.

"Sasori, Sakura doesn't seem to have a dance partner."

Sasori gave a bored look. "That doesn't seem to be my problem, isn't it?" He said, more as a statement than an actual question. Sakura just replied with a scoffed.

"You can teach her how to dance too." Konan looked at Sakura then at Sasori. "It's just a small little wish of hers, and it's her first time in her high school life that she joined the dance, why don't you just help her?" Konan made a face, wanting Sasori to accept her request.

"Konan, that was ages ago." He gave an exaggerated look.

"It's alright Konan-san." Sakura took her arm. "I know this isn't going to work." The pinkette spoke in a whisper. Konan shook her head, continuing.

"Wouldn't Sakura and my effort be thrown into the sea? Look at how gorgeous she is, but since she doesn't have a partner, she couldn't even join now."

Sakura glanced at Konan, before looking at the dress she was wearing. It was really beautiful, but since she didn't have a partner and having to admit that she didn't know how to dance properly as well, wearing such nice dress wouldn't mean a thing in the dance.

A wave of guilt crashed onto Sasori as he gave a sidelong glance at Sakura, who was looking down at her outfit. Sure it would be a waste if Sakura didn't join… She really looks very pretty…

"If you actually take that as one of your I-want-to-do-stupid-things list, I'll agree to it." He spoke in a monotone.

"Really?" Sakura shrieked, tiptoeing in her high-heels again.

Konan didn't really understand what Sasori was talking about, but at least he still agrees to it, so she didn't prey onto it further. She took Sakura's hand and gave a quick wink while Sakura replied with a grin.

0o0

"Here's my phone number." Konan handed back Sakura's phone as the pinkette saved it in her contacts under Konan's name. "Call me that afternoon, then you can come over and I'll help you with those preparations."

"Thank you!" Sakura bowed, leaving with Sasori as they exited the gate, only giving a final wave while the gate was closing by itself.

"So when's the training?" Sakura walked closely to Sasori as he slouched lazily, putting two hands in his black jeans.

"I don't know, when both of us are free." He mumbled lazily, he didn't even know why he finally agreed to it, but for the sake of getting this brat to stop annoying him, he's willing to do anything.

Sakura brightened her eyes, looking down the street happily. All these years when she was in school, she never feel like winning Ino in her life. She thought she was her best friend and she should be supporting Ino, cheering her all the way. Now Sakura came to realize that, she really does have to spare a thought for her own self instead of others. Perhaps she was just hoping that one-day, someone would sacrifice that much just for her too.

Winning Ino wasn't her only motive; Sakura wanted to tell the entire town how she felt that day if she won. She's tired of acting a good girl, being cool, read gossip magazine, going shopping, wearing mini skirts, and acting so rich and popular. Honestly, she would like to cosplay her favorite character at the anime convention someday, reading her favorite manga and going some parties to rock and roll and all these stuffs.

These two months, she had been doing that all day long, just being herself. Not completely though, it might take her some time.

She really couldn't wait for training.

* * *

Author's Note

I'm a NaruHinaKiba fan; it's just that I'm a little over to KibaHina side.

My results for my sciences are terrible like heck. Updates timing would still be the same, but don't really expect frequent updates every week. It might take up till two weeks if I'm busy. Sorry D:


	9. Get the crown

Goodbye Apathy

"No. Do it again."

Sakura sighed, putting down her hand that was originally in air. "It would be so much better if you demonstrate it for me."

"Do you want to learn or not?" He drawled.

Sakura stiffened her posture, raising her arms back into position while she glanced at her feet, shuffling as she mentally counts her steps.

"_We'll vote you for sure, Sakura! No matter who you are going to the dance with."_

"_We've seen your effort all these years, and I know you can win. If Ino wins, I'll tear that stage down."_

Sakura felt creepy to hear all that from her fellow schoolmates. To think that Ino was one of the most popular girls in school and everyone respected her like some God. But actually, when there were actually so many girls that hated her so much.

Right… everyone had two sides of their personality, why _hadn't_ she thought of that?

Everyone was also interested in the person Sakura was going to the dance with. Some say Sasuke and a majority says it was Sasori. No one was sure and none had ask Sakura either. Perhaps they wanted it to be a surprise for them.

There were just silence in the classroom where they had been practicing, both of them were just deep in thought, not even concentrating on what they should be now. The silence was only broken when Sasori started coughing repeatedly.

"Hey." Sakura paused for a while, looking at Sasori who had been coughing continuously for the past one minute. "Are you alright?" She added concern in her voice.

Sasori just silently nod, licking his dry lips.

Sakura frowned, totally unconvinced with his answer. "Let's stop for now. The school is about to close anyway." She mentioned.

He forced himself to swallow his saliva, enduring the sharp pain in his throat. "Ok." That's all he replied.

Sakura walked over to a few tables and chairs and pushed them to their original position before their teachers reprimanded them for messing up the classroom. Since the hall was taken up for some other activities, Sakura suggested their own classroom for the practice ever since day one.

They had been doing it a few days when most of the students had left school. Sakura didn't want to get embarrass when someone just walked into the classroom and furthermore, Sasori's work wasn't a problem

"Kami I have to go now." Sakura yelped suddenly after hearing the last bell ringing in school. She had to go back home before 7 since her cousins were coming over tonight and she was responsible for cooking dinner. Before she goes, she glanced at the redhead who was still tidying up the corner of the classroom.

"Sasori, here's a sweet. It'll help to soothe your sore throat." Sakura went over to the other side of the classroom where Sasori was aligning the table. She placed it on the table right behind him and continued. "Thanks for helping me today." Sakura gave a soft smile, staring at his back.

"I have to go off now. I'll see you tomorrow at school." Knowing him well, she didn't wait for his respond as she grabbed onto her bag, hanging it around her shoulder and ran off.

Sasori ignored Sakura for the entire minute as he continued to push the tables back to their original position. He then turned to his back and stared at the mint that was placed on the table.

The redhead turned his head back again and pushed the last chair into the table before walking towards the sweet. Sasori just stared at it curiously before picking it up and unwrapped the cover, putting the wrapper into his pocket.

He threw the sweet into his mouth, savoring the taste a while and forced himself to swallow his saliva again. He widened his eyes in surprise as he dug into his pocket and stared at the wrapper. The mint really did soothe his throat for a while.

0o0

"Take three tablets every six hours." The nurse pushed the bottles of medicine in the plastic bag towards Sasori after taking the money from him.

The redhead nodded, taking the plastic bag and head out of the clinic. He coughed a few more times before sniffing, tugging his sweater again and walked out in the windy street.

A few days ago, after coming back from the hospital, there was a huge downpour. He tried running back home, but at last, he still got drenched from head to toe. Sasori started to have a bad cough since that day when he was training Sakura but he didn't really mind it, until just this afternoon after school when he realized he had a high fever.

That wasn't the thing he was worrying about. It was that the dance that Sakura had been anticipating for so long happened to be this evening.

If it weren't for that, he wouldn't even bother to go such a long way just to get these medicines. He could have stay home and saved the money instead. But something had urged him to go to the doctor just to get well; Sasori didn't want to admit it, but he knew it was all because of Sakura.

Obviously he knows that he could never get well in just a short amount of time, but it was worth a try. He sneezed again as another cold breeze went by, tugging onto his jacket, he clutched onto the medicines tightly and began jogging back home.

Maybe he can get some sandwich at the convenience store nearby before heading home to take his medicines.

0o0

"Deidara."

"Sasori?" Deidara said out loud, staring at the television screen before popping some popcorn into his mouth.

"You sounded sick yeah."

On the cue, Sasori gave a cough and yet another cough; there were some movement behind the phone and Deidara just waited patiently for Sasori to continue.

"Go to the dance."

"What?" Deidara made a frown, staring at the television screen.

There was another cough and Sasori spoke again. "Cover me for the dance. Sakura needs a partner."

"What?" Deidara made a face. Just last week, he had asked why Sasori wasn't free and he told him the reason, and it surprised him a lot.

"_What miracle had happen to made you do that yeah."_

"_Take yourself as an example." There was a pause. "You two just can't stop annoying the hell out of me when you two wanted something."_

Sasori had asked him to be Sakura's dance partner since he was sick, then it meant that Sakura's original partner would be Sasori! But Deidara couldn't believe that the redhead would go that far just because he didn't want her to always annoy him.

"No. I'm not go-"

"Wear something nice. You better be there."

Sasori hung up the phone, leaving Deidara staring in space. The blonde had just bought a new movie and was planning to finish it alone tonight, since he didn't want his friends to come over, making stupid comments or sounds and ended up messing up everything in his house when they leave. And in his head, there was just one person that he had in mind the entire time, Hidan.

He sat there, motionless and not knowing what to do. If Sasori realized he didn't go in the end, he'll be dead meat for sure.

Deidara sighed loudly, shutting his television off. He stood up and placed the bowl on the table and walked to his room. In just a few seconds, he took out a shirt that he ironed just yesterday out of boredom.

"This should be good." He mumbled to himself, nodding along.

0o0

"Sakura! You look gorgeous!"

"Thank you, you too." She smiled sweetly back, smothering her dress as she head towards the only chair she found at the corner of the room. She dragged her heels towards it, her shoulder slouching and her lips pouting.

'_Where could Sasori be?'_ She mused.

The dance had already started and everyone was already enjoying themselves. She came her with Hinata in Kiba's car, since Sasori didn't pick up his call after so many times. She gave an inward sigh.

If Sasori really came, she would have to danc-

Wait… That would be awkward.

Sakura slapped her cheeks with both of her hand as she stared into space in horror. She was all focusing on herself, but she never once thought about Sasori.

She would have to dance with Sasori if he came.

Sakura can't imagine the scene. She just couldn't.

At that very moment of her life, Sakura really prayed that Sasori didn't make it. It's her first dance! Her very first dance partner would be Sasori! Oh Kami. Konan had decided her dance partner for her and she forgotten all about it. Had she got amnesia?

Her neck started to grow warm and her palm started to sweat. What was wrong with her? Was it because she couldn't stand how hot would it be if Sasori wore something cool that night?

What the?

'_Sakura, stop it. Stop. It.'_ In that very minute when she was thinking about Sasori, she started getting high about it.

Sakura took in a few deep breaths before looking at the entrance door. Perhaps he had forgotten, maybe he was lazy. Or possibly, he was just making fun of her and breaking the promise. Why would he care from the start?

If her partner didn't make it, she can just sit there and stare at all the fun. She had been practicing that for a couple of years, at the backstage enjoying the moments with her crew. She was used to it already.

Sakura began smothering the cloth, smiling contently to herself. At least she could make it to the dance in such a pretty dress. She didn't regret it at all. Indeed, Konan was really a nice girl. Someday, Sakura had to do something to make it up to her too.

0o0

Sasori cleared his dry throat again, standing up from his bed with blanket over his shoulder. He dragged himself out from his room and towards the kitchen, pouring himself the third cup of water he had in that hour. While he was drinking the water, the redhead reached out for his phone that was charging in the kitchen.

There were quite a number of missed calls and a couple of messages.

"_Where are you Sasori? Aren't we meeting at Konan's house?"_

"_I'm going with Kiba and Hinata, I'll meet you there!"_

"_Who was the one that always complained that he doesn't like to wait and hates keeping others waiting?"_

Sasori couldn't control himself but to smile at the last message as he placing the glass in the sink. Even though the redhead had told Deidara to go and take over for him, he still wants to know what was happening at the court; especially when Sakura was so beautiful that day.

The redhead didn't intend to call back Sakura since he had enough headaches for that day, he'll just see what's going on before heading back home to sleep again. Sasori went back to his room to get his sweater and changed his shirt into some warmer clothing.

The outfit that Pein had lent to him a day ago was hanging in his cabinet, neatly ironed and everything. But in his sick condition, there was no purpose in wearing it at all. Sasori had never noticed it himself, but he really wanted to wear it and go to the dance with Sakura.

He raised his arm and touched the texture of the cloth before closing his nut-brown eyes, turning his attention away from it and focused more on finding the fleecy clothing that he was suppose to wear.

He put on the woolly clothing before wearing his light red sweater that was placed on the chair when he got home before heading out in the windy night again.

0o0

"Hey Deidara? I thought you weren't coming."

Sakura paused and looked up, hearing the familiar name. She was all in thought that she didn't noticed a figure standing in front of her for the past few seconds.

"Hey." The blonde gave a smirk and raised an amuse eyebrow.

Sakura stood up in a shock, almost tripping as she gained back her balance immediately. "Deidara? So… you are from Iwagakure?" She glanced at the few friends that were looking at Deidara's direction; they were definitely from Iwagakure.

"Yeah." Deidara nodded, turning his attention to Sakura's dress.

"You sure look beautiful. Sasori must be so upset for missing this chance yeah." Deidara raised his eyebrow, his two piercing and vibrant blue eyes staring straight at Sakura.

"Where's S-Sasori?" She said meekly.

"I guess he's sick yeah." Deidara rubbed his chin, acting wise. "He told me to cover up for him."

"B-But he was perfectly fine this morning? We even did a last round of practice." Sakura blurted out before covering her mouth in embarrassment.

"So he wasn't lying?" Deidara widened his eyes.

"Lying?"

"Well, the gang and I called him to see if he was free for the day and hang out, he say he was busy teaching you how to dance." Deidara suppressed a laugh as he continued. "I thought he was lying about it cause he didn't want to go. And to my surprise, he was saying the truth. But it was rather hard to believe yeah."

Sakura blinked in surprise. _'Sasori refused to hang out with his friends, because of me?'_

Deidara then reached out his hand towards Sakura. "I shall see how much did he teach you." The blonde gave a smirk.

Sakura stared at his hand and blushed, nodding her head. Who could have thought Deidara would be her dance partner for the night? Her mind was blank when she reached out to touch Deidara's warm hand, letting herself to be pulled by him to the dance floor.

The pinkette couldn't believe what she was doing now, she felt as if she was betraying Sasori all the while. But heck, they weren't even couple or in a relationship, how could she even betray him when she had the freedom to do whatever she want?

Both of them stopped when they found a space in between of the crowd. He paused and turned, looking at Sakura as if she was really his woman. Deidara raised his arm and placed his hand on her hips. His hands felt smooth on her hips and she fits perfectly into his arms, his hands keeping her close.

Sakura never felt this way before; she was never that close to a guy, moreover; a guy she barely knew. Yet she felt so comfortable with him.

She wonders how would it be if Deidara were to be Sasori.

"Are you on alcohol? Your face is very red yeah." Sakura could smelt the mint of Deidara's breath as he spoke. Sakura took in a number of breathes again before answering. "I'm fine, just a little excited." She admitted.

"Shy? To be so close to such a hunk?" Deidara said soothingly, giving another of his signature smirk.

"Oh please." Sakura rolled her eyes, feeling Deidara's arm around her waist. She tensed a little but quickly got over it. She had been practicing her steps frequently so she was currently doing great. But she never had a real partner, since Sasori was unwilling to practice with her. She had to go home and get her bolster to actually rehearse in front of a mirror. Sakura sighed inwardly, finding herself so silly sometimes.

A weird thought suddenly got to her as she stared at Deidara. Could it be that Sasori had planned it all along? He probably didn't even want to dance with her from the start, that's why he didn't want to practice with her when she requested and even asked Deidara to take over.

She gave an angry huffed, mumbling a few incoherent words.

'_Stupid Sasori, it's n-not like I was really t-that desperate and wanted to h-have a dance with y-you!'_ She stammered in frustration. Sakura knew she was lying; she really wanted to have one dance with that stupid redhead. All the pinkette wanted was to show her gratitude towards him and now he's at home, claiming that he was sick.

"Hmph…"

Deidara stared at her blankly before speaking. "Actually, if you are angry at Sa-"

"Hey, forehead."

The voice that Sakura didn't wish to hear for the entire day finally came, and she was prepared for it already. She turned her head and let go or Deidara's hand, glancing at Ino who was staring back at her with her hands on her hips.

"I guess you aren't much of a pig anymore, since you can fit that dress you are wearing."

"I'm so amused, Sakura." Ino gave a bored look. "I've just seen you sitting at the corner and I thought I wanted to comfort you but I was so busy. Did your date ditch you?" Ino raised an eyebrow.

"If I'm not invisible to you, you can probably see that I'm her date yeah." Deidara gave a stupid look at Ino. "Too much fats around your eyes that you can't see a hunk here?" He added. Even though he didn't know why Sakura called her fat when she was so skinny like hell, he still decided to play along.

Sakura just gave a soft laugh. She never knew Deidara was so good at owning people.

"I know who you are." Ino sneered back "A nobody."

He gave a sad nod, looking deep into Ino's eyes. "Sure, I'm a nobody." Deidara shrugged casually, brushing off the comment as if he didn't care. "But as you see, nobody is perfect. And therefore I conclude, I'm perfect."

Sakura gave a soft giggle again.

Ino gave a harsh glare, turning and ignoring Deidara as she continued to find ways to piss Sakura off. "And where's that pretty boy Sakura? I thought you were dancing with Sasori."

"Currently, I'm the pretty boy here yeah." Deidara gave a large grin and pointed at a random corner. "So please mind your business and go eat some cake over there. We are pretty busy." Deidara gave a wave as he took Sakura's wrist and pulled her away from Ino, who was stomping her foot in frustration.

The blonde just pushed himself through the crowd until another space on the dance floor and stood there with Sakura, letting her wrist go when he realized he was still holding onto it.

"Your friend?" Deidara gave a pity look.

"I guess so…" Sakura said sheepishly. She didn't feel like explaining much to Deidara. Furthermore, it would just ruin her mood. "I do wonder how Sasori survived in your school yeah." Deidara gave a laugh, only noticing that Sakura was frozen on the spot a few seconds later.

She didn't think Deidara's words were actually just something to joke about, but she did ponder on it once or twice before she went to bed every time. "I don't know either." Sakura mumbled, staring at her shoes.

Deidara sure had made some new friends, that's what Sakura thought when he had received such a warm welcome from his schoolmates. But why did her schoolmates acted so differently towards Sasori? He didn't even do anything to harm them.

Perhaps he was just a little distance from them rather than Deidara who always had that warm smile on his face. But it wasn't entirely Sasori's fault that he acted that way. If she were to be in his situation, she would have distanced herself from them too, thinking that it was the best.

What if Sasori went to Deidara's school instead of hers? Wouldn't it be better for him?

Deidara snapped his finger loudly in front of Sakura's face, jolting her out of her thoughts. She raised her head as her face fell lax and brightened again, giving a huge smile. The blonde was about to speak but he stopped, opening his mouth to closed it again as he stared at Sakura's adorable smile.

"U-Uh…" Deidara stuttered, putting his arms down after giving the snap to shake her out from her thoughts.

"I need your attentions, ladies and gentlemen."

Both Sakura and Deidara widened their eyes in surprise, staring at the stage.

"We now have the result for the Homecoming Queen. Quite a number of nominees here and there were quite a few that got very close votes. But we still got the winner." The MC for the event said, looking at the paper again before speaking.

"I'll just announce the top three that got the most amount of votes." She cleared her throat again, fiddling with her spectacles.

Sakura flinched, widening her eyes even bigger and stared at the lady. Deidara just glanced weirdly at Sakura before gazing at her direction as well. He didn't know why girls wanted to win this event so much, but he still wished Sakura good luck anyway.

"Kurotsuchi from Iwagakure."

A few cheers came from the other side of the court and Deidara just gave a soft whistle.

"Ino from Konohagakure."

There was a louder cheer, but most of the Sakura's supporters just rolled their eyes.

"And Sakura from Konohagakure."

The said girl straightened her posture in surprise when she receive a few slaps on her back by her female friends who were standing close to her. The cheers were almost as loud as Ino, or even beaten hers.

When everyone was trying to settle down after hearing the top three nominees, no one noticed the entrance door opened silently and a figure stepping in. He closed the door quietly behind him, noticing the commotion happening in the court.

There were bright and glimmering lights shining everywhere, forcing Sasori to squint his chocolate brown eyes. His head was a little foggy and the noise level were really irritating him. But nevertheless, he still tried his best to accustom to the brightness.

Sasori had made the effort walked the entire way from his house to the Homecoming court as he had just missed the bus, and he was already sweating and panting along the way. There was no way he's going to just go home because of such reasons like the lights and noise.

He stuffed his hand into his sweater's pocket, ignoring the sweats that were still trickling down his soft cheeks. No one seemed to be aware of his presence since the crowd's main focus was on the MC on stage. He started to focus on the MC that was talking as well.

"Our winners is Haruno Sakura from Konohagakure. May I invite her and her partner to be on stage please?"

There was just a second of silence before the entire court was filled with echoes of people shouting and clapping.

"Sakura!"

"She's the best!"

The news was still stuck at her head. Sakura repeated it countless times until realization dawned over her; She won. She couldn't believe her ears.

Deep down, Sakura didn't honestly wanted to win, she just wanted to prove to Ino that she can do it even if she didn't have any popular friends like Karin. This competition wasn't just because of the beauty, but the true heart itself.

Sakura felt a warm grip around her arm as she looked up at the taller man. Deidara gave a squeeze and pointed at the stage.

"You should go yeah." He smiled.

"I i-intended to." Sakura stuttered, only to be pulled by her arm as she followed Deidara unexpectedly, bumping into a few people that were blocking her way.

She tried her best no to trip with her high heels clacking on the ground every time she took a step. They soon reached the stage as they climbed up the small stairs before walking towards the centre of the stage.

"Eh? I thought it was Sasori?"

"Me too, I guess I've lost five bucks to the bet."

The claps still haven't ended until Tsunade walked onto the stage to hand the crown to Sakura. The pinkette smiled with pride as she saw the lady that she respected walking towards her. The principle took the crown and handed it to Deidara who was a little stunned to do anything. He soon reacted when Tsunade got a little impatient and shoved it into his hands. Deidara stepped in front of Sakura, placing the small crown onto her head.

Sakura beamed, feeling the tiara on her head.

A few camera lights started flashing from each and every corner and Sakura felt a little dizzy with all those lights glinting everywhere.

"Let's have the Queen to say something to everyone." Tsunade spoke, handing the mike to Sakura before she could even react and push it away.

There was a short pause of shouting and Sakura manage to gain back her composure from the surprise

"I- Er…" Sakura was speechless. Just this afternoon, she was proudly reciting the things she wanted to say in her head when Konan was helping her with the dress. But she never once thought in her lifetime that she would really win. And furthermore, she was just playing around when she thought about the things she wanted to say.

'_W-What Should I d-do?'_ Sakura panicked, looking around quickly. She wasn't prepared. She didn't believe that her friends would support her and made her won this competition between Ino and her.

She was the head girl; she was supposed to have confidence in herself. But the crowd were partially filled with the people that she didn't know as well, how could she even remain calm?

"Does she have stage fright?"

"She looks cute when she's nervous."

"Even cuter with that blonde from Iwagakure standing beside her."

Sasori stared in confusion at the cheering crowd; his head was so foggy that he didn't even know why was he here in the first place. He slowly stepped forward, staring at the two familiar faces on stage.

His lips slowly twitched into a smile.

Sasori didn't know what was even going on, but the latter was happy Sakura as he noticed the crown on Sakura's head, shining even brighter than the lights surrounding the room. Sasori felt happy, happy to see that Sakura got what she was really hoping for. He didn't want to take any credit at all. Just by seeing Sakura smiling so happily on stage was the reward that he was satisfied with.

But the thing was, he was stuck with the crowd, wearing a plain sweater and sniffing along the way as he observed the pinkette and his best friend standing on stage together.

His smile faded.

"Uh, I'm happy that I've won." Sakura suddenly spoke, silencing everyone for a second. She gulped, glancing at Deidara to realize he was staring at her all the while. Sakura widened her eyes and turned her neck so fast that she swore she heard a snap. She was already very nervous already, why on earth must he have to add on to her burden?

"Does the homecoming king have anything to say?" The MC shoved the mike into Deidara's hand before he could even decline. He stared at the microphone in rude shock and then at the crowd. All these while when he was in his previous school, he was never the most popular ones and was never on stage talking crap. But this was pretty unusual and he got to admit, he was nervous.

"Um…" Deidara looked at Sakura and stared. The pinkette just stared back.

"Just say thank you and we can leave." Sakura muttered quickly under her breathe. Deidara nodded and was about to spoke when someone below the stage interrupted him.

"Kiss!" A voice interrupted.

"What?" Sakura almost shouted in the hall. At first, there was just silence after Sakura had yelled out shockingly, but then everyone began clapping in unison as they shouted as well.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

Sakura turned and looked at Deidara, horrified. The blonde reacted the same way as she did too.

Wasn't it supposed to be like this? Get the crown, get off the stage and get dancing? Why was this even happening?

Both of them exchanged glances before staring at everyone down the stage. That person who shouted that word must pray he or she wasn't caught, or both Sakura and Deidara will haunt that person till he or she leave the town.

"Come on! Kiss her Deidara! Don't be a chicken."

Deidara turned slightly, staring straight at his schoolmate that just yelled stupidly. The blonde swore inwardly that he would stuff his head into the toilet bowl when school opens.

Ino glared angrily at everyone that was shouting so happily and loud for Sakura. She was already infuriated when Shikamaru ditched her in the middle of the dance, saying he needs to go to the restroom and never returned afterwards.

And the thing that made her more angry was when she first seen Sakura. How on earth did she get such a pretty dress with those nice hair clips and such? Ino swore she had never seen those accessories and the dress in any shops that she had visited on Earth.

And the worst part was… When and where did Sakura even meet such a handsome looking guy in the first place? Ino didn't want to admit it, but she's really jealous about it.

Ino clutched onto her dress as she whirled around angrily, storming out off the hall and slammed the door. But the noise was masked with all those cheers and shouts. Until now, everyone was still eagerly waiting for the kiss that _wouldn't _happen.

Deidara glanced around before looking at Sakura in amusement. Sasori sure had missed the chance. The blonde really wonders how would he react if the redhead were the one standing on stage. He'll never know.

Sakura was a pretty, nice and a smart girl. Even though she's popular and was the head girl of the school, she never abused the authority to boss people around unless it was really necessary. That was what Deidara heard from some people when he was asking a few people where was she.

It was a weird thing when he heard that she actually didn't have a dance partner_ or_ a boyfriend. Perhaps, she didn't even have her first kiss either.

"But-"

Sakura suddenly felt her wrist pulled forward as she stumbled in front, trying to maintain her balance. She stared at Deidara in shock, not even knowing what was he going to do.

"Deidara what are you-"

Deidara just gave a smirk, immediately silencing her as she stared back into his eyes. At the one second, everyone was stunned and silent by Deidara's action. But in the next second, he tugged her closer to him and just plunged her lips into his.

And so, they kissed.

* * *

Author's Note:

Thanks for the reviews!

Uh the ending is pretty obvious. I got so good when I was imagining the story yet my writing skills ruined everything.

Lately I got really lazy to write. And I was hoping for a review to cheer me on but there was none coming out lately. Sigh. I really do hope you guys review! It takes me a lot of hard work to update this one. Chuuu~

Reviews are very appreciated!


	10. Outrageous

Goodbye Apathy

Sasori didn't feel anything, just rage.

Oh, did anyone know how much he wanted to go up on stage and pull Sakura away from that brat and take her with him? But of course, that thought never cross his mind. It was just a part of his inner-self that wanted to do it, but he was too sick to even think or stand properly, how could he even walk through those crowds and climb those little stairs?

"There, is it enough?" Deidara grinned happily and waved at everyone offstage. Sakura just stood there in shock, still seeing stars above her head.

There was an awkward silence before a clap could be heard from a corner, then everyone started clapping, cheering, whistling along. Someone even shouted that they will start a DeiSaku page on Facebook soon and everyone cheered even louder.

That's outrageous. Sasori could already imagine himself reporting the page to the Facebook's authority. But like before, it was just his deep inner-self thinking about the plan; his mind was just a complete blank.

The blonde grabbed Sakura's wrist, and without further ado, he pulled her down the stage, pushing everyone aside and headed to the exit. Sasori was just standing close to the exit, yet both of them just passed him by as if he was really invisible. Not that he's really invisible but it was just that no one had thought he would come here.

The door then closed behind them.

0o0

As the door shut, the volume of the music decreased and Sakura could almost hear her heart beating. There were a few bugs flying around the lamppost that was right beside them and no one had made any movement.

"Hey, you alright yeah?" Deidara started talking.

Sakura stared straight at Deidara's eyes, preparing to eat his soul.

"Ok, look. I'm sorry." Deidara said, completely not sorry at all. In fact, he still had that cheeky grin stuck on his face for the past three minutes.

"Sorry? Sorry and what? Time travel?" Sakura gritted her teeth and clutched onto her dress.

"How am I suppose to face the school tomorrow?" Sakura groaned, rubbing her temple. Everybody will be crowding around her, demanding for an answer to all of their stupid questions. There'll be no end to it unless another person did something stupid and their attention was distracted from her.

"If I could time travel, I wouldn't have come here." Deidara scoffed, he crossed his arm. "I have some credit for getting that crown on your head yeah. I could have expected a better reward than a kiss."

"Can you repeat your last sentence again?" Sakura glared at Deidara, showing her fist.

"What? It's not like it is your first kiss." He looked at her and yawned deliberately.

Sakura froze on the spot, her knuckles turned even whiter from clenching her fist hardly.

"Did I say something true?" Deidara whispered softly to Sakura, standing firmly and not scared of Sakura's fist at all. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breathe before putting down her arm.

"Hmph!" Sakura stuck out her tongue childishly for the first time before whirling around and stormed off. "This thing is over! I'm going home!" Sakura took the crown off her head and walked down the empty pavement.

"Don't tell me you're going home like that yeah. What if you got raped in the middle of the street?" Deidara shouted out. The clacking from Sakura's high heels stopped once he finished his sentence.

"How dare you curse me?" Sakura turned and looked dagger at the blonde who was staring at Sakura stupidly. "Then I hope you get knock down by a car!" She yelled back, turning once again and head off angrily.

"Seriously, this girl." Deidara muttered, trudging forward quickly and walked beside Sakura who was surprised to notice a figure suddenly popping out from nowhere.

"Stop following me."

"This isn't your mother's road yeah. I can walk here whenever I like."

"Oh whatever."

0o0

"Hey you're back honey, I thought you'll be partying out till midnight." Sakura's mother said, picking up her watering can on the grass patch.

"Not really, after that commotion." She spat, gazing at Deidara who was still following her. He just stared at her mother innocently and smiled.

"This guy is?" The older Haruno asked.

"He is-"

"Good evening. My name is Deidara. I'm Sakura's date for today. I was worried for her safety so I brought her home. I hope it doesn't cause any inconvenience for you."

"Oh my, I should be the one saying that."

'_This guy… he can be an actor already! He sure had two side of personality doesn't he? Acting so nice the first time we met outside the hospital and in front of my mother. Yet he's so irritating just now!'_

"Oh look at me, letting you standing outside of our house. Do you want to have some cake before heading home?"

"S-"

"Oh no no. He's a very busy person." Sakura wagged her finger at Deidara before looking at her mother. "I can finish the whole cake myself."

"Sakura, I'm not asking you." Her mother sternly said before giving a warm smile at Deidara.

"Actually, it's alright. I have some when I was there yeah." Deidara bowed politely before glancing at Sakura. "I shall get going."

"Bye!" Sakura waved, just as enthusiastically as Sasori when he was getting rid of both of them at the hospital.

Deidara mildly shook his head, waving back to her mother and walked away into the shadows.

Sakura sighed heavily, helping her mother as she took the watering can from her hand. The older woman glanced suspiciously at Sakura before heading back to the house.

"Are you going to throw away the little box you've kept years ago? That box where you put so many photos and things inside, shrilling 'Sasuke-kun' whenever there's something to add in your collection." She finally spoke, closing the front door behind her.

"_Mum._" She turned to face her mum who was chuckling lightly. Sakura made a face and rolled her eyes, putting the can on the table and walked to the sofa.

"I'm thinking about you Sakura-dear." The older Haruno said.

"Thanks but no thanks" Sakura pouted, adjusting her dress before slumping back onto the seat.

"Move on Sakura, move one. That little crush of yours would never work out. I find that fine blonde man much better." She said.

"Whatever Mum." Sakura threw a pillow back on the chair and stood up, placing her crown lightly on the small coffee table in front of the sofa. "I would rather pick Sasori if I had no choice but to forget Sasuke."

"Did I hear a new name? Sasori?" Her mum raised an eyebrow.

"Oh you heard nothing, mother." Sakura rolled her eyes again, storming back to her room. She shut the door loudly behind her as the other Haruno stared at the crown on the table.

"This girl… planning to show off to me?" She chortled slightly before sitting down on the sofa and picked up the newspaper and started reading.

0o0

"Sakura, do you know I just joined the DeiSaku fan page?"

"Er… thanks?" Sakura gave a confused laugh.

"Thanks to you Sakura, I have enough cash to afford a new phone with the amount of money I won from the bet."

"Bet?"

"The bet on who would be your partner for yesterday's dance. Everyone in the school lose. Who would have thought you'll be going out with a guy from other school?"

Sakura gave a small fake laugh before excusing herself back to her classroom. Come on, like seriously. Did they have nothing else to play? Like their Barbie and Ken set at home or something? Using her as the bet, that was outrageous! How she wished her dance partner was actually Sasori, then that frigging guy could have lost his entire saving for the year.

"Sasori?" Sakura spoke aloud from her thoughts after standing outside of her almost empty classroom. She almost had forgotten about the redhead after the dance.

The classroom was pretty much empty, only a few that were either chatting at the back of the classroom or sleeping. The first bell had not rung yet and the rest were still slowly walking back to their classroom. Sakura strolled in, putting on a huge smile just like everyday and went back to her seat, thanking Kami that her classmate didn't come over to interview her about the dance yesterday.

Sakura placed her bag on the table and slumped on her chair, looking around to see that Sasori had not arrived yet. She sighed heavily, patting her bag and was actually counting the seconds to tick by. The pinkette had actually brought a surprise for Sasori who was _absent_ for yesterday dance, but he hadn't come yet.

'_Wait a minute…'_ Sakura paused tapping onto the cloth of her bag and straightened her posture. She suddenly remembered Deidara mentioning that Sasori was actually sick.

Oh darn oh darn! Yesterday she even blamed that Sasori had abandoned her! If only she had listened to Deidara carefully that time. Furthermore, she never even called him to see if he was all right.

Sakura wanted to secretly pull out her phone and use when the first bell rang. And in a second, all the students and the teacher came into the classroom at once together and Sakura didn't even got the chance to on her phone. She rolled her eyes angrily, putting it in her pocket and reminding herself to call him during lunch break.

0o0

"Darn it! Should have known better and hide in the toilet during break time." Sakura groaned, walking tiredly out from her school.

Immediately when she wanted to head to the canteen, a group of people that she didn't recognize crowded around her and she could hardly breathe.

"I can't believe you know Deidara! Do you know any other guys that is good-looking and still single?"

"Hey Sakura, don't be so selfish and revealed all the guys behind the closet. I know you have more!"

"Sakura…" A few whined in front of her.

"Sakura!" A few ordered her to tell them.

Back then, the pinkette really wanted to shout out Sasori's name and to shut all of them up. But the thing was, she could hardly even gasp for help when the people were pushing her and even punched her in her stomach when someone accidentally fell on her.

But if Sakura were to say Sasori's name, the girls might not even care. If they even cared in the first place, everyone would have skipped school and rushed to Sasori's house to get him medicines. Just like the day when Sasuke got sick and the entire fan-girl club when to visit him during school hours, and the Uchiha had to order some police to get them all out of the estate. Wasn't that horrible?

Speaking of good reputations from KonohaHigh…

But honestly, Sasori was so damn good-looking and handsome and could even compete with Sasuke. Sakura didn't know why no girls were even attracted to him.

Wait...W-What did she just say?

Sakura shook her head inwardly, walking towards the school gate. Yes, she admitted but so what? Sasuke was s-still the best!

"Sakura!"

Sakura stopped at her feet, looking up to see the girl with two buns on her head rushing up to her.

"Tenten?" Sakura said in surprise.

"I seen everything yesterday, you were amazing!" Tenten gave a thumbs up. "I wanted to congratulate you today but everyone was clustering around you like some mad ants." She sighed before cutting Sakura's attempt to say welcome." Anyway, that isn't important!" Tenten shrilled, pointing at the gate. "He's waiting for you outside!" She said excitedly.

Out of the sudden, Sakura just randomly spoke. "Sasori?" She didn't even know why she said his name. But it was perhaps that she was thinking about him all day long that his name was stuck in her head.

"No, not him." Tenten waved her off. "It's Deidara! That cool kid from Iwagakure!" Tenten shoved Sakura's back and pushed her towards the gate. "You better get him! Other girls are starting to flirt with him!" She yelled at Sakura for no reason.

"He's not my-" Sakura sighed, admitting defeat as Tenten was still pushing her to the gate hurriedly.

"Deidara-kun. You aren't free this weekend?"

"Nope. Not at all." He gave a polite smile back.

"That two-face idiot." She muttered under her breathe before walking towards Deidara.

"Hey Sakura!" He gave a huge wave.

"Hi. How's life. Mine's good. Bye." Sakura walked off, not even caring when others were talking about Deidara and her.

"Hey where are you going? I was waiting for you here yeah." He grabbed Sakura's arm as everyone around them started making weird and childish sounds.

"I thought you were busy flirting, so I'll be on my way."

"Jealous, Haruno?" He smirked.

"Ew. Please. No." She made a disgusted look, attempting to walk off.

Deidara scoffed, stepping forward and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him, standing no less than a few inches away from him.

"Well, I thought you wanted to visit Sasori yeah." He whispered into her ears, sending shivers down her spine.

Sakura shook her hand, stepping back and glared at Deidara. "That is one thing. But this is another thing. You should not even be here in the first plac-"

"Ah, whatever Sakura." Deidara grabbed her bag, pulling her away from the cluster of girls. "We are going to a convenience store before going to Sasori's house."

"Wait!" Sakura yelped helplessly, feeling herself being dragged on the road. She waved to get a few of her schoolmates but all she could see from a far were a few girls shouting curses at her and a few supporting her like some mad fans.

Seriously, why was life so hard for her?

0o0

There was a soft knock on the door, followed by a louder one again. Sasori glanced up before tiredly stood up from his seat and shuffled his feat to the door. He didn't have any visitor in mind so he just assume it was some salesman introducing wok and pans.

Sasori swing open the door, ready to shoo off the salesman when he stood there in surprise, looking at the person who knocked the door.

"You- how did you get here?"

"Hi!" Sakura beamed, raising a small plastic bag. "I bought some pills for your cough, fever and flu. I just presume you had these three illness." She raised an eyebrow at Sasori.

"How did you get here?" He hoarsely asked, still standing at the doorway and ignoring the pills or whatever medicines in her hand. Who was she? A stalker?

"It wasn't just me." She turned back and frowned. "Deidara! Why are you so frigging slow?"

'_Deidara?'_

"Hey yeah." Deidara skipped slowly behind, holding onto tons of plastic bag as he tried his best to lift one of his hands up. "Deliveries!" He gave a bright grin.

A small hint of disappointment immediately appeared in his two chocolate brown eyes as he stepped aside, welcoming them in without speaking anything. He thought he would just be expecting Sakura, Sakura alone.

As both entered, Sasori looked at the bag that Sakura was holding before turning his attention to Deidara. "Are you having a party?" The redhead asked. He tried his best not to sound as sarcastic as he usually was.

"No silly." Sakura said, obviously missing out the tone in Sasori's voice. "These are for you. Deidara said you were sick."

Sasori closed the door without looking at her.

Sakura placed the small bag on the dining table and looked around in bewilderment. She had this feeling that his house would be in ship-shaped condition and tidy without any mess. Sakura had always thought Sasori would be a neat and well-organized person. Guess she was correct.

But the thing that surprise her was how bright and well lit up his house was. The curtains were tied up and all the sunlight could enter the room freely. Sakura love this kind of houses the best, it gave a feeling as though she was in heaven.

Deidara placed the heavy bags on the table, sighing in relief after feeling that his hands were free from burden. Sakura walked towards Sasori who was still walking sloppily towards them after closing the door.

"Sasori. Let me show you something." Sakura dug into her bag and fished out the bright and shining crown that she was awarded and swung it in front of the redhead's face.

"How is it?" Sakura grinned from ear to ear.

He tried to look surprise when he saw it, but the fact that he knew about it yesterday didn't help much with his acting.

"Oh. Congratulation."

"Can't you be any happier?" Sakura looked upset. She was thinking of cheering Sasori up with it. Too bad, he's one hard guy to please.

"Well I'm sorry for that." He said, not feeling a tiniest bit of regretful at all. He had a headache since yesterday night when he tried to go home after the dance. The particular scene that kept repeating in his mind didn't much help him.

What scene, you asked?

Oh, you clearly know what he was talking about.

Sakura pulled a face, slipping the crown back into her bag. She wasn't even intending to show off, she just wanted Sasori to be happy for her, since he did helped her a lot.

The pinkette and the blonde decided not to tell anyone about the kiss they had, even though thousands of people had already witness it. It would be better if one person less would know, even though they didn't know that Sasori was one of the audiences.

"Here are the pills. Eat one after your breakfast, lunch and dinner. I preferably guess you didn't skip meals. Do you?" Sakura looked at Sasori in suspicion. He looked away, not bothering to answer.

Sakura sighed, crushing the empty plastic bag. "Well, it's unhealthy for you."

"Anyway, here are some sweets to soothe your sore throat." Deidara was busily rummaging through the plastic bags as he scooped out the box. Sasori glanced at the packet that Deidara was holding, expecting it to be the one Sakura gave it to him last time, but it wasn't. He inwardly huffed, just like a 5-year old kid.

"I'm not going to pay for all these things." Sasori glanced at the bags disapprovingly because he didn't get the sweet he wanted.

"Nobody asked you to." Deidara drawled, shaking the box and going back to their conversation. "You should be grateful that I manage to get this. There's another kid who was eyeing on this last packet yeah."

"Aha." Sakura giggled. "I have to admit, you are brave to fight that little boy for it even when his mother was there."

"Oh heck it. That boy could have asked properly for it, but he gave me that finger. Too bad he was short, he can't even reach me."

"He gave us revenge. Too bad Deidara got it." Sakura suppressed a giggle when Deidara shot her a glare. "I told you not to mention it yeah."

"He slipped and fell on the puddle of milk that the kid poured from the drink section."

Sasori observed the two exchanging their jokes at the supermarket. He was listening attentively most of the time, but when it comes to Deidara, he practically shut his mind off.

Yes, Sasori and Deidara were best friends. But he seriously didn't want to hear him talking about how fun their trip was at the store. Not him as the character of the story.

"Thanks for the story, I was so overjoyed and enthuse about it." He gave bored look. "I'm seriously enjoying every part of it." He repeated, leaning against the kitchen table.

"Do you have to be that sarcastic yeah?" Deidara sighed. Sakura gave a small nod and agree.

"I'm sick here. And I want some peace and sleep for the entire day. I'm sorry if you didn't notice that before."

"Come on… We can tell you some funny jokes I heard from the Internet, it can cheer you up yeah." Deidara said

"Tell him the penguin one." Sakura brightened up.

"Well, go home and continue with your riddles, jokes and sweet talks. Mine doesn't welcome you two." He stood up, gesturing them out of the door.

"But..." Sakura stood up reluctantly when Sasori dragged her.

"Come on, at least we bought all these for you yeah."

"Well, I never told you to do that." He grumbled, picking Deidara up as well.

"Remember, take those pills after meals. Don't skip any of it. Breakfast is very important." Sakura said in a hurry.

"And if you had some leftover food, bring some over to Kakuzu's house next week yeah." Deidara added quickly too as both of them were pushed out of the door.

Sasori just nodded huffily, pushing both of them out and closed it behind them. He could still hear a few muffles but he completely shut their voice out. A few seconds later, there were no noise outside. Sasori supposed they had left.

He turned and shuffled back to the dining table, sitting down on a chair.

Of course, you stupid pink-head…

Which guy would ever tolerate hearing how enjoyable you day was with another man?

He sighed, ruffling his crimson red hair and started coughing once more as he search in the bags if there were some snacks he could eat since he was a little hungry.

0o0

"Hey Sasori."

The blonde turned and adjusted the sound of the music playing in the car and watched if Sasori was even listening to him from the start.

"What?"

"Do you like Sakura?"

If Sasori was driving the car, he would have brake and let Deidara flew out of the car window.

Forget it. He just tensed at the question, that's all.

"No." He gave Deidara a stare, an expressionless stare before frowning. "Why?"

"Just asking yeah." He shrugged playfully and gave a huge grin as he continues driving.

"Why?" Sasori repeated his question, ignoring Deidara's attempt to shrug off the topic.

Deidara gave an inward sigh, not even thinking twice and just answer. "I think I like her."

He didn't know what to reply, all Sasori did was to open his mouth slightly before closing it firmly shut, refusing to say anything.

"Hey, what's with the silence yeah?" Deidara glanced nervously at Sasori.

"I don't care about it. I thought it was something _even more_ important." He glared at the other side and out of the window, watching all the lampposts passing by like the wind.

"Mind you, that's important." Deidara made a face, making a harsh turn to let Sasori jerk out of his seat; as if it was a sort of revenge for Sasori.

The redhead shifted his position and glared at the blonde before looking in front. "If you like her, then just go with it. As long as you don't intend to drag me along with your romance, I'm fine with it." Sasori mumbled.

"I was planning to yeah."

"No."

Deidara purposely made another harsh turn, surprising Sasori once more. "You better stop making these crazy turns. I know you're doing it deliberately." Sasori scowled.

"Aren't we the best of friends yeah?" Deidara scoffed, slowly stopping at a red light.

"I just want to know how she feels about me." He beamed excitedly and added.

"Ok." Sasori said, and yawned.

"Come on." Deidara reached out to Sasori's pocket as the redhead jerked suddenly, surprised when Deidara took his phone. The blonde threw the phone on his friend's lap before started driving when the red light turns green.

"Message her."

"No." Sasori plainly said.

"Pretty please? I'll give you ten bucks for each message."

"You can try that on Kakuzu." Sasori muttered.

"Come on, seriously Sasori. Just do it yeah."

Sasori clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes in frustration and started typing in the message, a little furious.

**How do you feel about Deidara?**

He sent the question without even letting Deidara see what he sent. Heck, why the hell did he care anyway? This was his phone.

A soft vibration and a melody played in Sakura's pocket as she stared weirdly at it before fishing it out. After she had that fight with Ino, she had saved thousands of messages, now she was always wondering who would send her a message or call her whenever her phones rings.

She flipped opened her phone and pressed onto the button to see the message. Sakura scanned trough the question and raised an eyebrow, also noticing it was Sasori who sent it.

It really surprises her when Sasori's name appeared on her phone screen, and it even shocked her with the question he asked. But she never preys on it further, Sakura just replies his question, since beating around the bush didn't really please him, she noticed.

**He's okay. Sometimes a little annoying, but he's kind of funny and amusing. It's fun to be with him.**

"What she says?" Deidara stretched his neck to look at Sasori's phone when it vibrates to alert the owner of any new message. Sasori just tiredly showed the screen to Deidara after reading it himself as the blonde raised an amused eyebrow.

"Annoying?"

"Glad you know." Sasori said.

"That hurts." Deidara gave a sidelong glance. "But she likes it when I'm with her."

Sasori rolled his eyes, wanting to put his phone in his pocket when Deidara stopped him. "Ask her! Ask her if I'm her ideal type yeah."

Sasori gave an inward sigh, pulling out his phone and began typing.

**Then do you like him?**

Sasori avoided beating around the bush, sending the message straight away without Deidara's approval again.

A short melody was played again as she looked at her phone, scanning through her message and widened her eyes in disbelief at the screen. She was about to reply when a voice called out, immediately distracted her from her phone.

"Sakura!"

The said girl almost dropped her phone in surprise as she turned around to see who was calling her. And in her greatest shock, it was the blue-haired lady that she had lost contact after the dance.

Sakura widened her eyes, looking at the blue-haired lady walking towards to her. She put the phone back into her bag and gave a wave.

"Konan-san!"

"Sakura, are you free this afternoon?"

Deidara looked at Sasori's phone for the fifth time that same minute.

"Why isn't she replying? What did you sent her yeah?"

"I asked her if she like you."

Deidara widened his aqua blue eyes and frowned, looking at Sasori as if he really wants to strangle him but obviously he couldn't. "You scared her off yeah." Deidara frowned unpleasantly as he continues to focus on driving the car.

"I'm so sorry. Do you want me to bow down in front of you for you to forgive me?" Sasori said sarcastically, putting his phone back into his pocket.

"But I really want to know the answer yeah." Deidara sighed.

The redhead gave a sidelong glance at him before staring out of the window in daze. Not only Deidara, but Sasori was also eager to know the answer too.

0o0

"I'm a little nervous. You sure they will welcome me?" Sakura asked.

"They might look fierce or scary, they are actually nice." She assured her.

"But anyway, this is Kakuzu's house. I'll introduced them to you later." Konan said, turning the door handle and swung it open.

The door flung open, sending them a small breeze brushing across all of their face. Their attention immediately focuses on the two girls at the door.

"Brat?" "Sakura?" Sasori and Deidara said in unison.

"What are you doing here?" Sasori beat Deidara in asking the question.

"You two know her?" Pein commented.

"Sakura and Sasori came from the same school." Deidara explained.

For once, everyone was shocked; except for Konan.

"I just saw her at the pavement of the road, wanting to go home. So I just ask her if she wanted to join us." Konan explained

"Sasori, you never mentioned that you have such a cutie in your school." Hidan smug.

"Come on, Sasori introduce your friend here." Kisame said.

"That is Sakura." He pointed at the pinkette who looked embarrassed as she tugged onto her jeans. "This is Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Pein." Sasori drawled, pointing at each of the members before looking away.

Konan shook her head, pulling the daze Sakura who was still trying to register the quick introduction into her brain. Konan lead her to an empty seat on the floor that Pein had specially reserved for her. Since Sakura just joined unexpectedly, they moved their position a little for Sakura to settle down.

"How did you two even meet?" Pein asked out of curiosity, he turned to look at Sakura, wanting her to speak up.

"Sasori brought me to find Konan-san before. She was there to help me with the dance preparation." Sakura glanced shyly at Pein.

"That was a surprise." Kisame spoke, looking at Sasori. "When are you so kind?" Kakuzu added, knowing exactly why everyone was surprise with Sakura's words.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "If I doesn't, she'll annoy me to no end." He drawled.

"Hey!" Sakura grumbled.

"When I annoy you to buy a bottle of coke when you are in the head of the line, you wouldn't even do that yeah." Deidara complained.

"Too bad." He shrugged.

"I know why Sasori would help her." Everyone looked curiously at Konan, even Sakura and Sasori.

"Because she's too adorable and nice to refuse." Konan giggled, pinching Sakura's cheek lightly.

"Oh fuck. I didn't know you swing that way." Hidan looked bewildered.

Pein looked surprise and shock as he stared at Konan for her response.

"Sakura is just like my small little sister." Konan shot Hidan a look.

Sakura widened her bright emerald eyes and beamed. That moment when Konan acknowledge her, she felt so happy inside. She just gained so many friends in an instant: maybe friends, but she'll look at the situation first.

And furthermore, she might have earned a trustworthy good friend too.

"Anyway, how was the dance last week?" She stared at Sasori before glancing at Sakura who was speechless.

"Pretty boy go to the dance?" Hidan roared with laughter while Kakuzu just jabbed his elbow into his stomach to stop him from adding to the noise pollution.

"I didn't go."

It silenced the entire group members.

"Deidara went for me." Sasori muttered bluntly.

Everyone turned to stare at the blonde before looking at Sakura, confirming with her. Sakura just nodded.

Konan gave a sidelong glance at Sasori. She thought her plan was going smoothly for Sasori and Sakura, when did Deidara barge in all of the sudden?

"Then how's the dance?" Pein asked, seeming to understand what Konan was thinking.

Sakura gave Deidara a glare, warning him about the promise he made. About not telling those people who didn't witnessed or know about the kissing incident.

"I could have yawn to death there yeah."

Should Sakura be offended for what Deidara had said or should she be happy that Deidara didn't let the cats out of the bag? Well, whatever. She'll just take the first one.

"At least you can dance with a hot babe." Konan snickered.

"Maybe." Deidara stared at the thick dictionary lying on a table.

"Whoa." Kisame manage to catch Sasori who was almost glaring at Deidara when he made the comment. Kisame couldn't tell if the redhead was glaring or just staring, but his knuckles were indeed white from clutching onto his shirt too hard.

"Love triangle..." Kisame mumbled softly, even though every single one of them could hear it.

"Huh? It's not like what you think!" Sakura protested, not even knowing both of Deidara and Sasori's reaction.

"Right…" Kakuzu softly commented.

Sasori rolled his eyes, turning around to make his back facing everyone as he lay at the corner of the room. He started closing his eyes and was about to a nap in the air-conditional room when Hidan's shouts nearly gave him a heart attack.

"Look at him." He pointed at Sasori who was sitting at the corner of the room.

"He's fucking jealous!"

Sasori glared at him. "Hidan. Don't start it."

"Start ranting on how fucking cute you were when you are jealous?"

"Oh yes Kisame. I suddenly remembered." Itachi speak for the first time, and everyone including Hidan stopped and stared at him curiously. "There was once when Hidan fell into a hole because a youngster pushed him in."

Sasori smirked, realizing Itachi was actually bailing him from Hidan's ranting. He laid his head on the bed and spoke out loud. "Yes, that was very memorable." Sakura turned to stare at Sasori before turning to look at Itachi again.

"It took almost a day before anyone noticed his shouts." The Uchiha continued.

"Don't you dare talk about it, you blind fuck." Hidan scowled.

"Ah… He was noticed because everyone thought he was a kitten trapped underground." Kakuzu said.

"Those days…" Pein spoke, closing his eyes and gave a peaceful smile.

"You fuckers."

Sakura chuckled. "I'm proud of that youngster."

"I don't need your comment, Pinky."

It was just like that and Sakura started to speak up more with Sasori's friend. She got to learn all of their embarrassing and funny moments, and even Sasori's for crying out loud.

She secretly has a personal favorite. The one when Sasori and Itachi got caught going to a women's bathroom because they were running away from a gang fight. She's a woman herself, and she knew it was really ridiculous to be laughing about it, but the two coolest men she find in the group had did something so such hilarious thing.

"Shut up." Hidan point a middle finger at Pein. "Kakuzu! Kakuzu is also involved in that bowling incident!"

Sakura wiped a tear as she hugged her stomach in pain. This was the first time she laughed so much in her life. It was really fun to have them around when you were upset over something; they were the best to cheer you up.

At first Sakura was having doubts coming over. Well… they were from Akatsuki after all and no one could blame her for that.

The group from Akatsuki has mixtures of people. Like funny ones… Hidan and Deidara were both good examples. Kakuzu can also slightly relate back to Sasori, they were both equally good at sarcasms. Pein and Konan definitely make a cute and kind pair, and Sakura definitely ship them. Lastly, Kisame and Itachi knows how to make funny comments on almost everything; which was also one of the important factor one why Sakura was still laughing so hard.

Now, Sakura had to ponder why Sasori was so distant and quiet at the start when he had so many out-going and hilarious friends.

After trying to control her laughter again, she stood up abruptly, glancing apologetically at everybody.

"I guess I have to go now." Sakura looked at her phone's clock. "I had night shift at the bakery."

"Need a lift?" Deidara stared at Sakura.

"There's actually direct bus that I can take just across the street." Sakura stared back.

"Need me to sent you to the bus stop, chick?" Hidan smirked.

"Sasori. I believe you can safely take Sakura to the bus stop." Konan tugged onto her friend's shirt.

There was a moment of silence as Deidara, Hidan and Sasori stared at her. What? Did Konan mean that Hidan and Deidara could not take her safely to the bus stop? They didn't show it, but it surely did hurt their ego.

But then, Sasori didn't even volunteered to send her off, so why did Konan had to make him move from his cozy position when he didn't even offend her or do anything wrong and stupid.

"I find myself sitting very comfortably here."

"I can go back myself, Konan-san." Sakura gave an assured smile.

No one knows what hit Kakuzu's head, but he sure sided with Konan too; not obviously, but it was certain that he did.

"Go and get a few cans of beer on the way, here's the coupon for a dollar offer." Kakuzu waved the money and coupon in front of Sasori. "The store is near the bus stop."

No one had ever defies Kakuzu when he ordered someone to do something, except for Hidan. Kakuzu's glare was already scary enough; his voice had to add in the creepiness too.

0o0

The bright orange light bathes their skin as they took their own sweet time to the bus stop. Both of their shadows were long and dull, and Sakura love the small garden near Kakuzu's house, it gives her a small, happy feeling that she couldn't describe.

If she lives nearby, she'll jog around the town every single day.

"I just seen your message before Konan called out to me and brought me to Kakuzu's house." She tilted her head, looking at Sasori before continuing.

"Why the sudden question?"

"If you don't want to say, I won't force you."

"Alright, fine." Sakura gave up, knowing that there wasn't any method to force him to speak. He's one stubborn guy.

"If you really want to know I'll tell you." She said again, wanting to see what was Sasori's reaction. But the problem was that his face was just expressionless all the way.

"I don't like him." She paused, continuing. "Sure, he does tease me and tell jokes and he's really fun to be with. But I just take those affections as a good friend. I have no interest in him, so you can keep your mind at peace."

Sasori nodded slowly and gave a very small smile that goes unnoticeable. He was really feeling that his mind were at peace like what Sakura had just said.

'_What?'_ He then frowned deeply and looked at Sakura.

"What… keep my mind in peace? I was just asking for fun." He muttered, keeping he face stern.

"I was still thinking of what Hidan said. Are you really jealous?" Sakura teased.

"I was thinking of pushing you to the road." Sasori gave a glare that could freeze hell.

"I was just joking!" Sakura gave a light punch on his shoulder while he gave a pissed-off look at her. He took a few steps away from her and pointed at the space in between them. "Keep this distance, Haruno." He said angrily.

"You aren't angry, are you? I mean how could you be jealous of Deidara because of me? Hidan was just making a fool out of himself back then." She laughed, ignoring Sasori's threat and walked even closer to him.

There was _no _reason to be jealous. That's why Sasori was still offended when Hidan said he was. That religious freak's motive of living was just to embarrass him in front of everybody.

And Sakura _knew_ that Sasori would never be jealous. He's such a cool and calm person, how would he have fallen for a hyper and random girl? That's the reason why she dared to joke in front of Sasori just like Hidan.

Sasori silently walked, planning to just drop her off at the bus stop right down the road. He just quietly listened to Sakura's blabbering while she was just talking about many random things to him. Random things like how she saw a cat sleeping in a very weird and awkward position outside the school yesterday.

They finally reached the bus stop. And deep down, both of them felt that the distance from Kakuzu's house and the bus stop was very short.

"Alright. You can go now. Thanks for accompanying me." She gave a smile.

Sasori gave her an of-course-if-not-what-do-you-want look before he trudged off, leaving the pinkette alone sitting at the bus stop bench. She gave a quick sigh, quickly taking a book out from her bag, which she would bring everywhere when she was going out.

Sakura gave a stiff yawn, flipping to the page of the book where she had made a mark by folding at the corner of the page. She was not even reading, but just skimming through the words. It was her favorite book of the month, yet she felt that talking to Sasori was much more interesting than reading this romance novel. She sighed, flipping to the next page after glancing through the last sentence.

The pinkette continued kicking her legs into the air, grabbing onto the bench just in case if she kicked too hard and fall from the tall bench. She didn't even notice a figure standing a few meters from the bus stop, watching her under a tall tree.

Sasori didn't plan to return to Kakuzu's house with the drinks he had just bought from the convenience shop, not until when he saw her board the bus from afar.


	11. Sessions

Goodbye Apathy

As the school bell rang obnoxiously, Sasori slowly started to make his way out of the classroom, easily avoiding or being avoided by the throng of students that hurried past him.

He was just entering the hallway when he heard a familiar shout.

"Sasori!"

His eyes brightened up when Sakura walked towards him. He was searching for her everywhere when she disappeared right after the bell rang in class.

"Where have you been?" He drawled, even though he knew that it wasn't his business.

"To go and get something for a teacher." She explained.

The pink-haired woman hurriedly made it to his side and fell into step with him, smiling contentedly as they walked. Sasori could only wonder how someone who simply radiated as much warmth as she, could actually possibly want to spend any time with someone so… Well, with him.

"Hurrying to the store?" She asked.

He nodded at her question.

Sakura didn't seem to mind his cold, distant manner. Not anymore, at any rate. He remembered their first rough meeting… He was sure he wasn't exactly her favorite person in the world but somehow though, they had managed to end up here, walking out of school side by side. The other students didn't pay them much mind anymore. They were used to their unconventional relationship.

"Could you, past this to her?" Sasori halted in his steps, facing her and uneasily lifted up a bag that he had brought to school and handed it to her. Sakura accepted it as she curiously took a peak and noticed it was a light peach sweater.

"She said she was feeling a little cold these few nights." He muttered.

Sakura looked up as her face softened and already smiling. "Sure! I'll be glad to." She put the bag to her side and looked at him with a slight frown. "Are you working over time again?" She arched an eyebrow.

He never answered, just looking down at the busy hallway as he turned to look at the pinkette once more before leaving.

"I'll be going now."

0o0

"Would you take care of Sasori for me?"

Sakura sat down after washing a bright red apple, staring surprisingly at the old and fragile woman who was sitting up on her hospital bed, wearing the peach sweater that she brought from Sasori.

"W-What?" Sakura tried not to laugh sarcastically like how she learnt from Sasori for these past few months being with him.

"He always put on that brave front for everyone to see. And only you can break that wall down."

"Me? I dare not say." Sakura waved her hands in the air as she blushed slightly at the compliment.

"He trust you, I can tell. Even if you can't." She said.

Sakura bit her lips and looked the other way, handing the apple to Chiyo silently.

"You can take care of him. I know of it. He may look tough but he can be a little kid when no one is looking." Chiyo said.

Sakura didn't protest but nodded and smile. "I promise I will. I know that too, he might look so strong outside but inside, he was just a small kid who wanted to be hugged." She giggled.

Chiyo nodded slowly along, agreeing to what Sakura had said. In just a few months time, it was as if Sakura knew everything about him. It's just that she didn't have the confidence to admit that she knew.

"Anyway, I'll go to the restroom for a while." Sakura stood up from her chair and bowed politely before walking out of the ward.

Sakura bumped into countless pillars, chairs and nurses along the way and she even forgot to apologize to a few of the nurses too. The only thing that was clogged up in her mind was what Chiyo had been saying just now.

She finally found and entered the bathroom after walking around the entire level to find that the restroom was just next a few wards away from Chiyo's. Sakura walked towards the mirror and stared at herself.

"Me?" She scoffed and shook her head. "I know. My duty for even becoming friends with Sasori from the start is to change him. But change his life? Future? Or even his love life? Come on, I'm not really… a superwoman…" She murmured softly, recalling how Sasori referred to her ages ago. She combed her hair once more before heading out of the toilet.

Sakura stared at her clean pair of shoes as she skipped back to the ward. She couldn't help but to keep repeating those words said by Chiyo. The pinkette already told herself to snap it out and forget everything, but she still feels so confused about it.

"Excuse me." A familiar nurse suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bumped into Sakura with a tray filled with cotton wools and weird knifes.

Sakura looked up in surprise, recognizing the same nurse who bumped into her last time. "Aren't you the one that is in charge of Granny Chiyo's ward?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"Yes, that's why if you actually excuse yourself. We are trying to save her."

"W-What? What?" Sakura hollered, pausing less than a second to scream again as she blocked the nurse's path when she want to move.

"Her heart rate became so low and she almost stopped breathing for a few seconds. Her illness seems to get more worse." The nurse snapped angrily, pushing Sakura out the way as she walked to the direction she was heading to from the start.

"Not again. Not again!" Sakura panicked before hitting her head with both of her hands. "Why did I even leave the ward? Could it be my fault?" Sakura cried out.

She rushed towards the direction where the nurse head to before looking at the huge red operation sign that was lit up above the huge door.

"Sasori…" She whispered softly, repeating again with a louder whisper "Sasori…"

She finally calmed down and fished out her phone quickly, jabbing the phone button without mercy as she swiftly brought the phone to her ears.

"Not again, not again!" She bit her lips, begging Sasori to pick up the phone already.

"What is it?" Sasori answered the phone and spoke immediately. He already knew it was Sakura as he saved her number before.

"Sasori. It's Granny Chiyo! She's in danger again!" Sakura panted just by shouting through the phone. Her palms were sweaty and cold and she didn't know what to do. She knew that she shouldn't be panicking now, but she was worried, very worried that he might not be able to see his grandmother for the last time…

As if the movie was replaying by itself, the receiver had already hang up the call after hearing the news and Sakura could only wait for about 15 minutes for Sasori to rush as fast as possible here; just like last time.

15 minutes passed and it was like years to Sakura. The loud footsteps could be heard and a familiar voice thundered at the service counter in the middle of their own hospital floor.

"Where's Chiyo?" She could barely make out what the nurse or doctor was saying but she could exactly hear Sasori's loud voice.

Anther loud footsteps could be heard again and Sakura looked up, finding the guy she was expecting to slowly walk towards her.

It was the same. When Sasori arrived a few months back as Chiyo was in danger, he had that worried expression that Sakura had seen once in her lifetime. Those eyes that were filled with all the emotions he had been keeping in himself. She could see right through him. How sad, worried, anxious, frightened, stress he was. Everything.

Without a word, he slowly walked closer towards Sakura and stared at her with those two eyes that Sakura wished she could just disappear in it. She wanted to look away but she couldn't, she was trapped with his emotions. Sakura was just as scared as him.

Again with the silence, he plopped onto the seat right beside Sakura and sat there with the sweats that he got while running here. Sakura wanted to comfort him so much, but all she could do was just to open her mouth and closed it again like a sick goldfish.

In just that second when Sakura was hesitating about comforting him, he bent forward, allowing his legs to support his elbow and softly clapped two times, clasping his hands together afterwards and started praying like before.

Sakura widened her eyes at Sasori's silent movement, only realizing how much Sasori had remembered when she had just told him about something like that childish.

After trying to stop her lips from quivering, she raised her two hands and clapped twice softly too.

0o0

The sign finally become dim and the door swings open, revealing a doctor that came up with his mask already taken off. He approached to the two and stared at the both of them, sighing softly.

"I'm sorry. We did our best."

There was a second of silence as they tried to register that information and translating the meaning to their head.

Sakura didn't dare to believe it. She shook her head as her eyes became watery.

"How could it be? Doctor it can't be!" Sakura grabbed onto the doctor's coat and screamed.

"I'm really sorry. This is the best we can do."

"No… Please… Tell us that there's another way!" Sakura clutched even harder, revealing the wrinkles on the overcoat. "Miss, please calm down." He answered politely, already used to the incident of the patients' close relative begging them to save the patient again, even though they could not already.

"This, this can't be!" She hollered.

"Everyone in my team did their best. I'm sorry, but Chiyo had choose to let herself go."

"Bu-"

"Sakura!" Sasori yelled, deciding to stop the pestering.

Sakura froze, staring straight at the doctor's eyes before looking one the floor, still partially unwilling to let go of the coat.

"He had done his duty, let him go." The redhead muttered, almost too quietly.

It froze both of the arguing party; Sakura broadened her eyes, immediately letting go of the coat and obeying Sasori without protesting. The doctor just sadly sighed, leaving as fast as he could.

Sakura slowly turned, her face held with sadness and disappointment and was about to cry any moment. She had spent so many weeks with this kind old lady and she had created a special bond with her.

Even though it wasn't as deep as her relationship with her own mum, Chiyo was literally just like her closest kin next to her mother. She was just like her own grandmother. And when she was young, Sakura would always sit on her lap and hear many inspiring stories from her grandmother.

"I-" Sakura slowly turned and opened her mouth, staring unbelieving and leave her lips parted and hanging open when she had turned to stare at the redhead who was sitting on the chair along the corridor; It shocked her more than anything more in her life, ever startling than seeing her cat get run over by a car when she was kid.

"S-Sasori…" Her voice turned hoarse just by looking at him.

Another tear silently rolled down his already puffy cheeks.

He was crying.

0o0

Sasori had skipped school today, and it didn't surprise Sakura at all as she knew he would do that.

She tried going to his house, ringing the doorbell countless times before giving up as Sakura tried to search for him near his place.

It was raining so heavily and the search was even harder alone. She held tightly onto the umbrella as she ran and splashed into all the puddles on the ground despite it ruining her school uniform and brand new shoes.

After an hour of running three times around the neighborhood, she finally found him sitting on a bench close to that little playground and near his flat.

"Sasori! What are you doing?" Sakura screamed under the heavy rain. She stepped in front of him and stared at his entire soaked body. She clicked her tongue irritatingly and grabbed his arm, wanting to pull him arm when he slapped it away.

"Go away. I don't need you sympathizing me."

Sakura gazed back in rude shock. "I'm not sympathizing you! I just don't want you to get sick again." Sakura explained, her face and tone filled with concern.

"Oh fuck off!" He glared at her with fury. His hand clutched hardly together and he refused to budge.

"Sasori!" Sakura flew her temper as she stomped her foot. "Let's go!" She wanted to pull him but her hands were slap away before she could even touch him.

The sound of the slap echoed in the rain as Sakura glared at Sasori once again. She didn't sympathize him, she never once did. Sakura just wanted to help him. She didn't want him to be upset. She wanted to cheer him up so, so badly…

She gritted her teeth, knowing that there wasn't a point in arguing. After taking a few deep breath, she pushed the umbrella that she was holding and let it cover the rain for Sasori, ignoring the fact when she was starting to get drenched as she had sacrifice her umbrella for him.

"I don't care. I'm not leaving here until you come with me to get some shelter." Sakura hollered. The water continued dripping into her eyes and mouth and she took every nerve in her body system not to blink and break the eye contact between Sasori.

Sasori blinked, looking up to stare at Sakura after she had sacrifice herself just to prevent him from getting soaked any further. In just one second, she was totally drenched from head to toe.

"What are you-"

"If you're not going, I won't move." Sakura interrupted Sasori while yelling in the rain, not bothering if the water goes into his eyes or mouth when she spoke.

"You're not the only one hurt here. I'm hurting so much inside as well! Seeing you in this state… it made me so miserable!" Sakura screamed, remaining in that very same position.

"Haruno…" He muttered under his breath.

"I really care for you Sasori… Because you are my one and only best friend in this world!"

"…Sakura..."

She blinked after hearing her name for the second time. She stared at Sasori who was looking down on the ground.

Slowly, he lifted his head and gazed back at Sakura. His normal expression that he always wore to school had become more of a normal human like. There's an unusually huge emotion firing in his eyes that probably had too much intensity and power for her heart to melt when she was just looking at him.

His eyes were glimmering with his tears.

But that's not only that surprise Sakura. It was the particular small smile that was craved on his lips, a special smile that she in her life had never seen before.

"You… Moron…"

Right at that moment, he stood up in an instant and jumped onto Sakura, wrapping his arm around her warm neck. Sakura straightaway yelped in surprise, releasing the umbrella in her hand immediately and letting it to knock against the bench before dropping it on the ground.

The sudden weight that pounced on her almost made her fall back, but the grip was so strong that it pulled her back to her feet even though it feels like she was about to fall any moment.

Sakura felt the cold wet body against her chest as she breathed in heavily, trying to calm herself down.

There was just silence between those two, allowing the pitter-pattering of the rain be the melody of their sorrow.

Sakura's lip slowly curled up, ignoring how heavy the rain was and raised both of her arms, returning the gracious hug. Sasori helped her so much, giving her the comfort when she needed it, this was the only thing she could do for him now.

"It's alright to cry." She spoke in a whisper, but Sasori could hear it loud and clear as her soft and soothing voice rang through his ears and her warm breathe breathing against his neck. Sasori felt so comfortable and pleasant; how he wished he could be in this position forever.

"Even big boys cry too." She gave a light giggle, patting his back again. "I won't tell anyone. Not a single soul in this world…"

The only answer she got from him was the slight movement made by the redhead as he snuggled his forehead deeper into her cold and freezing shoulder. Despite the cold harsh wind and rain, they could just feel warm by standing in that posture.

They could have stayed like that forever.

0o0

"Let me bring you to one place.'

"Where?"

"It's a secret." Sakura winked playfully.

It was about a week and a half after Chiyo's death and the funeral had been done. It was a small and short one since they didn't had much relative, only Sasori's Granduncle and a few of Chiyo's friend. Deidara and the rest did dropped by, having some talk with Sasori and all. Mostly Konan did the speaking, since the rest didn't really know what to do. Even Deidara and Hidan shut their mouths when they were there.

Sakura did go, of course. Even if Sasori didn't ask her to, she'll still go. Sakura had met his Granduncle there and they hit off pretty well at the start, it just that he gave her countless heart attacks when he kept pretending dead.

He said it was a habit since his sister had this hobby to play dead when they were fishing near the lake years before Chiyo had her illness. Now Chiyo rarely feigned dead, she was afraid when she played dead, it might really happen. Now he often played dead in her place.

It was something that sincerely touched Sakura's heart. Even though distance would ruin friendship or relationship, it never will for kinship.

At that funeral, she also came to realize that Sasori's parents were dead long ago, from what she had heard from his Granduncle. They were on a business trip, only until their plane was hijacked and it crashed into the sea. There were no survivors.

The funeral was long over, but Sakura knew he was still feeling upset and miserable about it. Once, he let it slipped about reminding Sakura to buy that day's newspaper to the hospital. Sasori didn't seem to realize his mistakes and Sakura didn't bother to correct it, she just simply nodded and obeyed.

That's why she's bringing him to that place today.

As Sakura pulled him and crossed the road, he stared at her suspiciously and hoped it's not somewhere ridiculous like an amusement park or those crowded places with all those kids running around with their parents. He hated those places the most.

Sakura pulled him a little further until they reached a small park that was located near the school, but there were so much turns and different routes to go that Sasori forgotten how to even reached her without Sakura to pull him for the direction.

"Here! I came here ever since I was young!" Sakura looked at Sasori to see his reaction to the special place that she had shown him. This was a sort of secret place for Sakura even though this was a public place. She never told anyone she came here before.

"School's works are tough, I came here often to relieve stress here." Sakura said cheerfully, happy to share her little secret place with Sasori.

She pulled him again, still not letting go of Sasori's wrist. Both of them didn't even mind, or that they didn't even realize that they were having body contact for so long. Sakura lead him to the end of the open area that had several trees surrounding it and a huge opening up at the end of the park, revealing the cliff and the bright landscape of the city area.

"Come on. Shout it all out."

Sasori stared at her as if she had asked him to jump down from a cliff.

She sighed, before jabbing her thumb at herself "Follow me."

Sakura turned towards the open area and gave a loud piercing scream. In the next second, there was a small echo of her screaming but it was quickly gone, only a few birds flying from a few tress because of the sudden echo of Sakura's voice.

The pinkette turned and grinned at Sasori before pointing at the opening. "Do it. No one is going to hear you. People around here didn't even know this place existed, I actually found this old park long ago but I told no one about it. I was afraid everyone used this place as their _own_ relieving stress. If that really happens, I would have to change spot."

Sasori stared in space before arching an eyebrow. Maybe, he should try it out.

He stepped forward, which surprised Sakura a whole lot when she thought she had to persuade him several more times before he would give in.

The redhead glanced at Sakura, as if he was embarrassed to do it.

"Come on, shout with me." Right after Sakura finished her sentence, she started screaming again, not even caring if the world was actually looking at her.

That shout from Sakura gave Sasori a tiny bit of courage to do it too. The redhead felt so stressed and frustrated within, he wanted to release everything. Since Sakura had brought him to somewhere like this; as thought she could read his mind, he thought, why not give it a try?

While Sakura was still screaming like no tomorrow, his shouts added to the huge echo and it lasted for several seconds until they were out of breathe and had to stop.

"How is it?" She gave a pant in the middle of her sentence.

All he could do was to nod.

"I think I'm getting old." Sakura sighed, heaving a few times again and approached to the bench just a few feet away. The redhead stared at her, following her to the bench to sit as well.

After Sakura finally calmed down, she turned excitedly and faced Sasori, as if she was about to share a very fun game with him.

Fun… Game…

"Let's share secrets!" Sakura giggled eagerly. "I've shared my top secret. Now it's your turn." She said with a pause in between her words. She knew Sasori didn't like talking about himself and hated speaking more than two sentences at once, but she still asked anyway.

"What secret? I don't have any." He spoke.

"Oh really?" She arched and eyebrow, leaning forward towards Sasori's face and gave a smirk.

He cowered at the close distance between the two of them as he shifted his position, moving away from Sakura uneasily. The said girl blinked at Sasori's reaction and pouted, as if she was upset about him moving away.

"One."

"One what?" Sakura asked as she sat back on her seat again.

"One question."

"Any question?" Sakura's face brightened.

He nodded.

Sakura glimmered as she started massaging her hand and cracking her knuckles. This was the first time Sasori voluntarily asked Sakura to ask him questions… Even though it was Sakura who asked Sasori to share it first…

"What, exactly happened to you?" She paused and rephrased her sentence to make it clearer. "I mean what did you and your friends did to end up all of you transferring schools?"

Sasori looked down on the ground, seeming to have doubts to even let Sakura asking him question. Realizing that he had already promised her, he had no choice but to go on.

"That day, Itachi sent us a message, telling everyone to meet up at one of the Uchiha's warehouse for something. The message was passed and we all agreed." He let out a short breathe and continued

"Everyone meet up and we went over secretly since we had been there numerous times and everyone knows the secret routes to enter. We reached an waited, turns out that Itachi hadn't been there so while waiting, so we decided to make a fool out of ourselves and explore on our own."

"As I started walking over to the cartons of boxes, I saw a few lighters on the table right beside the stack. Curious, I picked up one." He narrowed his eyes. "Little did I expect that one of the lighters would be used for the arson."

Sakura widened her eyes; finally understand what he was talking about.

"Itachi didn't show up even though we called him multiple times, so we decided to leave. When we left, the warehouse was still in one piece, then about half an hour later, it was burnt to the ground."

"Itachi framed you guys?" Sakura said in disbelief. She thought Itachi was a good guy…

"He didn't do it. Turns out that his phone was stolen before the messages was sent." Sasori shrugged, continuing. "And never once did it cross our mind that it couldn't be Itachi as he really hates to sent or receive messages in abbreviate words. The message that was sent to us was filled with those shorten form of words. It wasn't Itachi."

"They had the evidence so everyone were charged, only I got jailed while the rest were just expelled from school and fined for trespassing. Life still goes on, I guess."

"Did you find the culprit?" Sakura asked in concern.

He shook his head. "I guess someone wanted revenge. We made so much nuisance in school, getting this revenge is sooner or later. We already expected it."

There was a short silence as Sakura lowered her head, feeling so much guilty than before. "Why didn't you tell everyone from the first day you came?"

"Oh, so if I were to say I'm innocent, everyone would come over to me and say 'I believe you' and give a hug and a pat on my head?"

Sakura cringed her face at the amount of sarcasm in Sasori's sentence.

"It's over anyway, I don't feel like talking about it anymore." He said, lifting his arm and put it behind his back as a sort of pillow. Sakura took it as a hint that they should actually stopped the conversation about it already. Sasori slowly closed his brown eyes, opening one slightly and looked at Sakura.

"What about you? Sharing one?" He said, more as a statement than a question.

Sakura paused for a second before looking at Sasori. She would love to say it, but she thought that this _session_ was supposes to cheer Sasori up. But she still says it anyway.

"I don't like Sasuke." She said.

Sasori closed his other eye, opening both in the next few seconds and looked at Sakura with the same expression. "I know… You don't like him, but you love him. I get it already." He drawled. Sakura could almost sense the jealousy in his voice, but she took it as sarcasm after second thought.

"No, really. I don't anymore." She mumbled again. After Sasori gave her a questioning look, she said again.

"I was influenced by many people I guess." She sighed. "My parents divorced a long time ago, things didn't work out for them. And my mum started having this campaign about how guys are so terrible, idiotic and stupid they are. About none of them are good and all sorts of nonsense. I was influenced by it, and did become a little sexist afterwards. Not until I enter High school and made quite a number of guy friends, like Naruto."

He nodded, indicating that he was listening and allowing Sakura to continue.

"I met Sasuke in first year. And yes, many people treat him like God. He seem so perfect… Rich, smart handsome. That point of time, every part of sexism cells was gone and I thought he was like the most amazing person in the world. They created a club just for him, and he was just that popular and well respected." She shook her head in disapproval and continues.

"Every girl started liking him, perhaps only for Ino and Hinata. And I was one of the crazy fans too. It came to me that I didn't even like him from the start; it's just that he's a perfect man to me, but not the man that is going to complete my life. You know…" Sakura turned towards Sasori and tried to make some hand signal, as if he'll understand just by looking at them.

"You don't like him...?" He asked, almost surprise and shock.

"I guess it's really just because everyone been saying how great he is, and it made me think that I wanted him in my life too. Even though I knew I could never be happy with him."

"You know" She paused, finding the correct word and say it out. "Happiness?" Sakura tried to explain with her stupid, failed hand language that no one could understand.

"I don't have those feelings when I'm with him, just embarrassment and awkwardness." She sighed, carrying on. "I told no one about this as I was scared they would accuse me for using Sasuke as a stepping stone to be popular…" She whispered miserably, regretting that she even told something stupid from the start to Ino.

"The happiness feeling when you are with that person you like? And the times when you are both together, it makes you feel as if the time passes by like seconds. And just by looking at the person, all the misery you are feeling a while ago are gone… Happiness…" Sasori's voice started fading away as he continued his long speech in his mind.

"How… How do you know?" Sakura asked shockingly, tilting her head in curiosity.

"I…" Sasori was almost caught off guard when she asked him. He stared at the sky before picking the courage to look at Sakura again.

'_Wait… of course I'm so dumb!' _Sakura gasped inwardly, recalling when Konan told of Sasori's past.

'_And also, to remind you to keep in mind of what you say in the future, so you'll be a little aware of Sasori's feeling.'_

"Because I like y-"

"I see!" Sakura cut in. She was all in thought about Konan's word that she didn't even notice that she had just interrupted him.

"You see?" Sasori blurted out and stared at her. His eyes were widened so big that it could pop out anytime.

"You must have a crush before, so you'll know this kind of feeling." Sakura smiled, mentally reminding herself to change the subject soon.

He softened his gaze and stared forward, refusing to look into Sakura's eyes

No… that's not what he meant.

"Anyway, what's your dream? Your dream job." Sakura repeated to make it clearer, as usual.

"Nothing in mind." He admitted.

Sakura gave an unpleasant frown, but before she could start ranting about how important it was for someone to have a dream and it's critical to think about the future, Sasori cut in.

"What about you?" Sasori asked.

Sakura gasped in surprise, looking at Sasori's face that was held with genuine interest.

She gained back her composure in no time and replied. "I want to be a teacher." Sakura shouted out proudly before blushing a little.

Sasori gave her a puzzled look. "Teacher? Why?"

"I would put the students that hated each other at the far end of the class and put those besties together for their seating arrangement. And of course… If I heard any rumors about couples and such, I'll pair them and let them seat together!" Sakura grinned, feeling extremely proud of her weird idea.

There was an awkward silence after Sakura had finished her sentence. She stopped her smiling and turned to look at the redhead who was trying not to laugh. He was using the back of his hand to suppress a giggle that was going to come out any moment.

This was the first time Sakura seen Sasori laughed, so genuinely…

"That is the most childish and stupidest thing I've ever heard." Sasori can't help but say it out loud. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down as much as possible.

Sakura snapped back from her thoughts and gave an ugly scowl after hearing Sasori's remark. "It is not." Sakura growled, making a face. "Someday, I'll prove it to you."

"Hn. Then let's wait till that someday happens."

That sentence almost shocked Sakura as she looked back at Sasori, watching him his calm expression. She slowly blinked, slouching a little before looking back at the sky.

"Okay, let's wait for that someday to happen together." A small smile slowly edged on her lips.

In that few minutes of silence, both of them watch the clouds moved and the sun slowly setting. They never spoke or made any movements, all they did was to breathe in the chilling air and relax at that very moment.

For these past few years in Sasori's life, he had never been so relax and carefree before. He always had to put up that stoic face everyday and tried to avoid everyone as much as he could. But ever since he met this weird girl who always had to smile and laugh at every single thing, he had no choice but to slowly get rid of his stern-looking face and smile… and even laugh with her too.

Sasori took in another breathe of fresh air.

How he wished that one-day, he could muster the courage to say that three words again. Just... that…

He shook his head, gazing at the sky once more before tilting his head to look at the girl who was so quiet suddenly.

"I have to go now." Sasori spoke rather reluctantly as he stood up and looked back at the girl.

She immediately jolted up, seeming as if she was deep in thought before. She looked up at Sasori and tilted her head, wondering what was he doing. "What did you say?" She asked.

He arched his red eyebrows and repeated. "I said I have to go now."

Sakura stood up almost too quickly for Sasori to even react. She straightened her sweater and looked up happily, as if she was going to an adventure to Narnia. "Where are you going?" She grinned.

"To see someone." Sasori replied, noticing how excited Sakura was suddenly.

"Oh I see." She said, her delightfulness disappeared from her face and all that left was a smile. "I suppose you can be a gentleman and follow me out here right?" She said, almost to shy for Sasori's taste.

Sasori quirked an eyebrow as he stared weirdly at her, wondering what's with the red blush on her cheek. He quickly shook the thought out of his mind and pointed at the big park entrance.

"Sure, I'm passing by the bus stop anyway."

* * *

Author's Note:

Oh crap. You guys aren't going to hate me for those things happening here… Especially the cut-off confession… Right? Well, if he really did confess here, all the fun that is going to happen later on wouldn't be interesting anymore. –Oh? Hints?-

Review?


	12. Love You Not

Goodbye Apathy

Sakura stood at the balcony, holding a small cup of water in her hand. She couldn't find anything suitable for her to drink as there were just bottles of beers and champagne in the fridge.

Where was she?

"Take that Kisame." Hidan threw an apple pie but his opponent managed to duck and it landed on Pein's shirt.

"Hidan, you asshole." The orange haired man gritted his teeth, grabbing the whipped cream from a cake and run towards Hidan childishly.

Sakura shook her head, giggling to herself with drinking her water. It was Pein's birthday and they were celebrating at one of Itachi's chalet house. The others were just drinking and all and Sakura was clearly invited. It was Sunday and her mum was out of town to have some important business and she won't be back the next night. She secretly escaped and ends up her with the others as Sasori and Konan went over to pick her up from her house.

But there's one spy sent by Itachi's father to see if any of them made any retarded choice or move, like setting the kitchen on fire from what Konan had said previously when they came over for Christmas last year.

"Sakura."

The voice made Sakura jumped as she whirled around like a ballerina and the water in her glass swirled a little, reflecting her shock expression on the surface.

"S-Sasuke." She said hesitantly, forgetting to respectably adding a _kun_ behind. She was pretty awkward when she arrived and the rest were there at the party, but only making it more worse with Sasuke there as well, talking to his brother at a corner. She could see that he was practically dragged and force to come here by his father. But nether less, he never complained and just goes with it.

He put both of his hand into his pocket and walked coolly forward, stepping beside Sakura and stared at the night view, not even finding uncomfortable or anything. He just held this stoic expression that all Uchiha had inherited, maybe from their ancestor or something.

"Why are you here anyway?" He spoke first, surprising sakura. He was totally different from what she sees him in school. He did not talk much and it would be a miracle if he approached a girl and started talking first. Well, maybe miracles do happen.

"I could ask you the same thing too." She said casually, feeling a little calm then before. She never had a chance to speak to him alone like that. Not even in her lifetime. She tugged onto her light purple tunic dress uncomfortably.

"To see if they are messing around again. My father asked me to even though I could have stayed at home and sleep." He gave a bored yawn, before resting his arm on the railing and looking calmly down the balcony.

This was the first time she got to talk to him properly, other than giving a quick greeting everyday, she never had a chance to talk to him fro more than two sentences.

"Well, I was here because I was invited by Konan. Had a little connection between everyone here, so… yeah." She cut her sentence, noticing that she will stutter if she continues.

Sasuke parted his lips, but closed it back and left the conversation hanging. Sakura just took it as their talk had ended as she started sipping onto her water and swirling her glass as though it was wine.

"Sakura, Sasuke." Konan waved as the two of them stretched their necks and looked down. "Why are you up there, come and join us!" she shouted

Sakura shouted back an okay as she turned to look at Sasuke. "Want to follow?"

He shook his head. "I'm watching you all up here."

She nodded politely, and gave a quick bow before rushing down. She had no idea but she was totally relived when Konan called her down.

0o0

"Saku-Rawr Rawr!" The blonde laughed loudly before running in circles.

"Dei Dei Deidara!" Sakura started jumping around like a kangaroo.

"Can someone stop their nonsense, it's giving me a headache." Kisame face palmed while swinging a can of beer in his hand.

"Sakura-chan!" The blonde continued whining, running over to the very drunk pinkhead.

"Deidara-kun!" She stopped jumping and run over as well.

As both of them finally hugged together, they began dancing while clutching onto together, not even willing to let go. Until when Sakura had enough and tried to push away but Deidara's strong grip pulled her back easily.

"Deidaraaaaa, you are squeezing me a little too tight." Sakura coughed a little.

"It's alright yeah. Because I love you sooooo much." He released the huge hug and was about to go forward and kiss her when the redhead stood up from his chair and stormed forward, pulling them apart. Kakuzu managed to grabbed Sakura in time before she falls to the ground with Sasori's mighty pull that pushed them apart.

"Deidara." Sasori said unpleasantly, grabbing onto his friend's shoulder. "Wake up." He growled, shaking his friend while the blonde was hiccupping non-stop. Sakura, on the other hand, seemed to have stopped and fallen asleep.

"Jashin, they are so fucking drunk." Hidan grumbled tiredly while laying his back on the table. Pein was unconscious on the floor with all the cream sticking in his hair and Itachi was sleeping soundly, cuddling himself up in a small chair. Konan stood up beside the Uchiha and walked unsteadily towards Sasori who was still glaring at Deidara.

Currently only Kakuzu and Sasori were wide-awake at the party. Even Sasuke was so bored that he had already gone back to sleep already.

"Sasori!" Konan said in a high-pitched voice that almost burst Sasori's eardrum. "Bring Sakura home. We can deal with this." She giggled.

"Are you expecting me to bring her home in a bus? It's too late and hard to find a taxi around this time." Sasori gave a skeptical look.

"Don't worry, just drive her home." Konan fished into her handbag that was slung over her shoulder all the time and pulled out the car keys, dangling it in front of Sasori head. The redhead immediately let go of Deidara and took the keys while the blonde went skipping towards a wall and fall to the ground, unconscious.

"What are you going to do with them?" Sasori stared at the commotion and the messy place.

Kakuzu helped Sakura to straighten her posture and dragged her towards Sasori as he laid Sakura on Sasori's shoulder. "I'll help out. Lucky I didn't drink." The man said, looking at the disastrous state.

"Same here." The redhead mumbled, looking over at Sakura. He was fuming red when his best friend and her were hugging so close together, and even confessing his love for her although he was drunk. If Deidara was actually wide-awake, Sasori didn't even know how he'd react to the situation.

He tugged onto Sakura's and rested it over his shoulder as he slowly dragged her out. He found it rather comforting to do that.

0o0

Everyone was soundly asleep. Konan and Kakuzu managed to help everyone to the sofa while Hidan and Pein were left on the ground. There was just silence, no more Hidan's grumbling, Itachi's words of wisdom and Kisame don't-know-whether-to-laugh jokes. Kakuzu went back home while Konan was still at the chalet since she didn't have any car ride home. Who cares? She's skipping school tomorrow.

There was just silence in the entire house, only ruining it in a matter of seconds when she started pouring herself a glass of water from a jug.

Konan raised the glass and began taking small sips of water. She was very wide-awake after cleaning her face with ice water and she didn't feel like going to sleep now.

There were a few shuffles suddenly outside the kitchen as Konan looked out, to find Deidara standing there in daze before walking in like she didn't exist. He began rubbing his temple and trudged towards the jar of water and grabbed an empty glass, pouring himself water to drink too.

"You know what? You are lousy at acting." Konan spoke first.

He paused himself from pouring water from the jug, settling it down and glanced at her.

"I don't know what are you up to just now, acting drunk and wanting to pull Sakura into a kiss. You can fool everyone, but not me. Why are you doing this?" Konan continued, demanding for an answer.

"You are acting drunk too, isn't it?" Deidara looked back at Konan, crossing his arm and stare at the small glass cup in her hand. "Letting Sasori to drive Sakura home when I could actually do it too yeah."

"Oh don't you change the subject." She slammed the glass on the table till it nearly cracked. "You are Sasori's friend aren't you? Why are you doing this? Getting him hurt again?"

"I got bruises when he grabbed me like that just now, yeah." Deidara grumbled tiredly.

"Oh, serves you right then." Konan started drinking again.

Deidara pulled a long face and stared at Konan. "If Sasori have the rights to pursue his own happiness, I don't see why I can't yeah." Deidara straightened his posture and frowned. "It's not like Sakura like him or anything."

"You clearly know Sasori is upset for what you did just now." Konan frowned, ignoring Deidara's last sentence. "You know what? I don't care, I want you to apologize to him."

"The fuck?" Deidara yelled, swinging his arms around in front of the woman. But she didn't even blink or flinched at it. "Why am I in the wrong when I did nothing? I have the rights to like her, so why am I the one apologizing? I mean, how do you know if both of them like each other yeah?"

"Oh you moron. Sasori likes Sakura. Did you two meet like yesterday? You are his friends since years ago."

"Oh you know what, _moron_? I like Sakura as well. Even though he's my friend, I'm not backing down yeah."

Konan was about to yell at him again when Deidara whirled around angrily, stomping out of the kitchen. The blue-haired woman just clutched harder onto her glass and looked away from the door and started drinking her water again.

Sasuke slowly stepped out behind the pillar that he was hiding for a while. He was just coming down to have supper and coincidentally eavesdropping the conversation.

"Sasori likes Sakura, so is Deidara." Sasuke whispered.

Even though he's popular in school and almost know as much gossips as Ino did, he never widened his eyes so big to the new one he just heard.

0o0

"I finally found your key…" Sasori turned the doorknob as he stepped into the dim-lit hall. He took him more that two minutes just to find her key in her messy bag and to fit the correct one into the slot.

Sakura was partially awake already, still yelling at the top of her lungs and into Sasori's ears.

"More!" That's the only word Sakura keep repeating in the car. He really regretted bringing her along even though it was Konan who suggested. Now he had ended himself in such a terrible mess.

He took her arms and unwrapped it from his shoulder, taking her slowly towards the sofa that had its pillow neatly arranged. After messing it up a bit, he finally put Sakura softly onto the chair when she suddenly sprang up, shocking Sasori for a second

"Sasori-kun!" She shrieked happily, hanging her arms over Sasori neck as she pulled him closer.

"Sakura." He tried to pull her away, but Sakura pulled him closer.

"Don't let go!" Sakura whined, pouting along.

They were now in a very awkward and uncomfortable position for Sasori. Sakura was sitting on the sofa while Sasori's body was pulled forward and towards her as his hands were putting on top of the sofa.

"Sakura." He said, repeating it again afterwards before he gave up, her arms were still tightly around his neck and refusing to let go.

Only after a few more seconds then Sakura finally released the tough grip and allowed Sasori to breathe in some air when he was practically holding his breathe for the entire time. He was about to stand up properly when Sakura purposely plunged forward, pulling his coat and kissed him; so tightly that he hardly was able to catch his own breath.

At first he was stunned, but slowly he was so engrossed to the kiss. It was once in a lifetime that was so passionate. Sasori released the grip on the sofa and slowly pushed her down to the sofa.

He slides his hands down her waist, pushing the sofa a little and messing the carpet underneath the chair. Sakura responded to it and took off his coat, throwing it on the ground before wrapping his waist with her arm. The silence was just filled with the smooching sound between them and they hadn't broken their kiss even since.

Just as Sasori was reaching for her shoulder to pull her clothes out, an image of Sakura smiling immediately flashed across his mind.

Sasori flung open his eyes, standing up and stepped back swiftly, letting Sakura lying alone on the sofa with both of her arms raised, stretching as if she was reaching out for something.

"More…" She paused before giving a loud shout. "More!"

He panted for a moment, softly covering his mouth with the back of his hands. He almost lost controlled; he could almost have sex with her right at that sofa she was sleeping on. But what if, the next day when she woke up, both of them woke up…

There would be no turning back, Sakura… she can't turn back.

Sasori closed his eyes, rubbing his temple with one hand of his thumb and index finger. To think that he almost lost himself because he was so into it. He couldn't believe that he almost ruined Sakura's happiness in just that second if he made the wrong decision.

The redhead picked up the coat on the ground and put it around him. He looked back at the unconscious Sakura who had already put down her tired arms, still mumbling a few incoherent words in her sleep.

Sasori sighed, walking towards the door and turned the knob and revealing the dark night outside of the house.

"Sasori-kun!" She giggled, snuggling herself into her pillow.

He halted for a second and spun round, staring at the girl who was sleeping. He shook his head, thinking that he was just hallucinating. The redhead glanced at Sakura for the last time before moving out and closed the door behind him.

After the car started its engine and the sound of it speeding slowly faded away, the pink-haired girl turned to the other side of the sofa, giving a small stretch before hugging the pillow, smiling to her own self again.

"I love you! Sasori-kun!" She giggled for the last time, before letting the silence sinks in.

0o0

Sakura sighed, rubbing her temple. As she walked into the school, she looked around and all she could see were students and teachers, walking around like some snails. Everything was passing so slowly and her headache was getting worse. Maybe she should report to the infirmary during the first or second lesson if she couldn't take it.

As she made a few more turns and headed to the lockers, she spotter the familiar redhead who was standing there like no one's business.

"Sasori?" she called out.

The redhead whirled around, looking at the pinkette walking merrily towards him and put on the best smile as Sasori was staring at her weirdly before slot in his last textbook in lazily.

"You look pretty tired." He stated.

"Oh, was that not obvious?" Sakura's smile was immediately rubbed off from her face as she massaged her head angrily and roughly. "Thanks to Hidan's stupid challenge, I got so drunk." She muttered angrily.

"I thought you are smart to reject the offer. Guess I was wrong." He slammed the locker shut and walked off, slowing down a little to let Sakura to catch up.

"Luckily I had set my alarm on Friday night, or I'll still be at home sleeping." Sakura gave a tired yawn before wincing at the sharp pain in her head. "But how did I end up at home anyway?" She asked, remembering that she wanted to ask Sasori the very first thing in the morning when she woke up.

"I brought you home, if you can't remember." He gave a sidelong glance.

"So I wasn't dreaming?" She whispered to herself quietly, biting her lips nervously.

"Huh?"

Sakura blushed, looking down. "Don't take it offensively…" She mumbled, daring herself to look up afterwards. "I d-dreamt that we a-almost make out."

Sasori stared at her and stopped at his track, Sakura followed too.

"I said it was a d-dream! It's se-seriously a dream. I didn't f-fantasized about it or think about it! I had too much drink you see. Maybe it's because you bring me home, and made me hallucinate t-these stuff after you went back." Sakura stuttered.

Sasori didn't speak at all; he just looked way and gave a quick nod, deciding to start walking for some odd reason.

"Come on, are you angry? We didn't really do anything in my dream so I didn't get to see-" Sakura coughed and clear her throat. "-Anything. So why do you even mind about it?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. Sasori just looked back and gave a loathing look.

"What?" Sakura shouted innocently, trying to catch up with him.

"How would I know about all these? You are the one that dreamt about it." He spoke like nothing happened at all.

"You seemed uneasy. I don't know? Offended or worried? It's hard to decipher your expression these days." Sakura commented.

"Disgusted." He answered for her.

"Oh you asshole." Sakura smacked his back as he glared at her and she laughed loudly, both walking back to class while Sakura was talking about the TV show that was just broadcasted last week.

0o0

Sakura gave a loud yawn, patting her stomach as she walked towards the bathroom. Her headache had lessen pretty much and it was the last third period of the day; History lesson. It was boring so she decided to take a small walk around the school before going back to class.

"Skipping lesson?" A voice called out.

Sakura turned, looking back at her two Chemistry classmates who were rushing to her side as they both greeted each other.

"I can't stand it in there anymore." She gave a yawn. "If I were to stay in there any longer, I'll fall asleep." Sakura said tiredly.

They took the long way to get to the bathroom, and decided the head back without going into the toilet since they had wasted quite some time talking about many things,

"Hey Sakura. We both wanted to ask you this question since morning. Did you go to the Uchiha's lodge yesterday?"

There was a short halt in Sakura's footstep as she looked at them hesitantly "How do you two even know?" Sakura gasped, looking around. She's going to die if anyone or any girl were to hear them talking.

"Don't worry Sakura, we won't sabotage you." Her classmate gave a cool look, brushing her hair off her shoulder. "We've seen you in a car with Sasori and another person driving into the Uchiha's chalet house that day when we were fishing nearby."

"You guys, aren't going to do anything right?" Sakura said cautiously, trying to recollect the faces in the Sasuke fan club to see if the two of them were involved in it.

"We were just interested, that's all."

"Well, Sasuke is cool and all, but we aren't like them; fantasizing him like ants on a candy."

Sakura can't help but to give a sigh of relief. She had suffered like hell in the two years at school when everyone knew she liked Sasuke. Because she wasn't in the fan club, she wasn't allowed to_ like_ him. Ironically, only people in the club could like Sasuke and were to share him among themselves.

"Hey." Sakura called out to the two girls who were just about to walk away. They both spun around, staring back at her.

"I was just wondering, you guys were so interested in other guys? What about Sasori? I mean he's also as good-looking as them…" She stopped for a moment while the two girls smirked at Sakura for making that comment. The pink-haired girl just made a face for their reaction given to her.

"Do you all still dislike him?" She continued.

"No of course! He's cute. And we got used to his distant personality." The first girl paused for a while, letting her other friend to speak up. "He's pretty nice actually, once he helped us to take down the posters and banners for the prom when we couldn't reach for it."

"We got over those rumors already. We did find ourselves stupid for spreading them."

"Some even gave praises while you were not in school for a week before the prom, especially Kiba"

She recalled the time when she stayed at home for the entire week after the Shane's incident. The pinkette shook her head, brushing off the thoughts and memories off. But Sakura still smiles at the comment when she knew it was Kiba doing the job.

"Then…" Sakura paused, continuing. "Ever thought of liking him?" Sakura asked, feeling extremely curious about it.

"We did, actually." One of them blurted out and the other slowly nodded.

"Really?" A small hint of jealousy tainted Sakura's tone as she raised her eyebrows; her mouth hung wide-open and staring straight at both of them. She was clearly jealous, but she didn't even know it herself.

"We all thought you and Sasori were going out together, so we just move on and decide to fantasize on that cute newcomer that came just last week." They both giggled together.

"Me? And Sasori?" She gasped, totally ignoring about the cute newcomer that they were talking about. She did see him before and he was really cute, but unfortunately, not as cute as Sasori as in her point of view.

"We know, we know. You are dating Deidara. But we don't really care about him. Although he have good looks, it's hard to like him with the attitude of his. We preferred you and Sasori to be together." One of the grinned while the other gave a thumbs up.

"What?" Sakura grimaced at the thought about going out with Deidara. "I'm not even dating him-"

"You don't have to be shy, Sakura. Follow your heart. If you like Deidara, we won't force you to like Sasori. But both of them are great, just that we are a little bias towards Sasori." The girl assured Sakura.

"Well, I'm not going to resist Sakura. If you are really going out with Deidara, I'm taking Sasori."

"Ew, not you. Sakura goes better with Sasori." She teased her friend as she nudged her back kiddingly.

"Well we need to hurry to our next lesson, see you later!" They suddenly waved goodbye while Sakura just gave a quick last minute wave before they turned behind the pillar, only leaving Sakura alone, speechless and a huge blush on her cheek.

More and more people were accepting Sasori, even though it was hard to notice but Sakura was very sure of it. She felt happy when they never judged Sasori again.

But she felt even happier when they commented on how good Sasori and her were together.

What on earth was happening to her?

* * *

Author's Note:

Sorry for the extremely long wait. Double sorry for such a short chapter and triple sorry for not replying to several PMs and reviews.

Several other reasons for not updating and also due to my laziness too. But I promise I'll update the next one soon! I've roughly calculated and in about 2 or 3 more chapters, this story would end. It could be even lesser, depending on how much I squeezed into one chapter.

Thank you for the long wait and I wish you guys review! :D


	13. Ached

Goodbye Apathy

"Sakura."

'_This voice again. That voice I've heard a few nights ago.'_

"S-Sasuke?" She turned her head as she watched the man walking towards her in the empty cafeteria; she quickly looked back without asking any more questions as she continued on what she was doing just now.

He didn't wait for an invitation as he sat in front of her, observing her face that was deep in thought for thinking the answer. "What are you doing?" He spoke, trying to start the conversation.

"I'm doing my last minute homework. Forgotten to do it yesterday." She bit her lips when she accidentally spelt the word wrongly. She grabbed her correction fluid and crossed it over the word, waiting for it to dry before writing again.

"How was the party that Sunday night? I went to bed early." He muttered monotonously.

"It was great, except the part when it gave me a hangover on Monday." She sighed, frowning ominously when she remembered how painful it was when her head hurts that day.

Sakura was slightly used to talking to Sasuke since she had finally admitted to Sasori about not liking him anymore. But she was still not used to the awkwardness between them. But if it's not for the work that she was focusing so hard on, she might be looking around nervously to see and crazy fan girl popping out from nowhere.

"Actually…" There was a short pause and Sasuke just looked away, hoping that Sakura didn't heard it.

"What is it?" Sakura gazed up and tilted her head to one side, looking at Sasuke with two of her bright innocent green eyes. She looked down again when Sasuke didn't replied immediately as she needed to rush finish her homework before the first period starts.

The Uchiha bit his lips. He wanted to tell her about the night he heard that Sasori and Deidara had liked her. But…

But why did he care? It was their problems anyway. Yet he wanted to help Sakura so much.

He didn't even have the authority to advice or tell what other people to do in a relationship, furthermore, he wasn't good in all these stuff. Telling Sakura might make the situation more complicated. He gave an inward sigh.

He couldn't even fix his own relationship right. Yet he was sitting here, telling her stuff like this. He couldn't help but find himself stupid.

"Nothing. Nothing important."

Sakura lifted her head up and frowned, wanting to know what was Sasuke keeping back. But before she could convince him to tell, the bell started to ring obnoxiously.

"I'm going off now." She heaved a sigh of relief when she did her work on time. Sakura started packing up while Sasuke just stood up, waiting for her to finish packing her bag as both of them proceeded out to the canteen, to only bump into one of Sasuke's friend.

"Hey Sasuke." Suigetsu called out for his friend from the crowd.

The Uchiha heir turned and looked at him before giving a last glance at Sakura.

"I'll get going first." Sakura informed him before running off to another direction. Sasuke wanted to give a polite wave back but he decided to just forget it.

"What are you two together?" Suigetsu appeared before him in a matter of seconds. He cocked his head to one side before a light bulb appeared above his head. "Did you confessed?" He smirked at his buddy.

"No." He gave a stoic expression like he always did.

"So she confessed to you?" He gave a big grin. "Did you accept? I mean you do like he-"

"No. And why would she do that?" He calmly said, turning to look at Suigetsu.

"I thought she likes you." Suigetsu stated, cocking his head to another side again. "I mean, all the girls do." He said, as a statement instead of a question.

Sasuke ignored the first sentence and muttered. "No, quite a number of them don't." He innocently raised his hands and started counting. "Ino, Hinata and… Sakura."

"Three, out of a few hundreds of girls in the entire school. You did great bro." Suigetsu gave a dumb look, slapping his hand behind Sasuke back. "Then you should have confessed. Maybe things would be better." He added.

"What for? I don't even deserve her." Sasuke muttered, watching the pink-haired girl at the end of the corridor. Suigetsu just gave a raised eyebrow and looked at what Sasuke was staring at.

"But…"Sasuke paused before continuing confidently.

"I know that guy will love her, much more than I can ever do."

0o0

"You are annoying yeah!" A voice yelled.

"You better take that back, Deidara." Sasori could easily recognize it was Pein's voice.

"Don't let this involve us." Kisame said loudly.

Sasori frowned, clutching tightly onto the doorknob before turning it steadily and pushing it. He quietly stepped in and glanced at the people in the huge room.

Konan was grabbing onto a pillow and seating the furthest away from the door. Her knuckles were already white and her eyebrows were frowning ominously at the particular blonde who was also glaring back, but not as intensive at Konan's.

The redhead rarely saw Konan so angry before. Unless something terrible had happened, like her favorite origami collection was burnt.

"Sorry. Traffic." Sasori whispered the two words and it explained everything before anyone had to ask him. Although he was whispering like a little mouse, it was actually enough to sound like huge meteorites hitting the Earth. The situation was as tensed like that.

"Move, lazy ass." Kakuzu muttered. Kisame sighed, standing up and sat on the other side to let Sasori to have a space to sit.

Sasori slowly sat down, obviously not knowing what was happening, and the awkward silence was disturbing him a little.

"I'm not going to apologize Konan. I am in the right. I have the chance to pursue my love for her. I like her too and no one can stop me yeah." Deidara finally spoke.

"Deidara…" Konan muttered dangerously through clenched teeth.

"What is actually going on?" Sasori spoke, interrupting their conversation. He was practically lost here.

"Deidara likes Sakura." Hidan gave the briefest summary ever in his whole life.

"Yeah, and so?" Deidara glared at Hidan before looking at Sasori, wanting to know what was his reaction.

"I know that long ago." The redhead just shrugged casually.

All six of them excluding Deidara turned and stared at Sasori in shock.

"You know?" Itachi blinked.

"Yeah." Sasori leaned against one of the many bookshelves in the room. "And I like her too."

Deidara's eyes widened, glaring at Sasori as though he betrayed him.

"Sakura will never like you, so you should give up yeah." He stood up and sneered at Sasori.

"Why would Sakura ever fall in love with you yeah? You are just a poor, meaningless, parentless, and emotionless guy! You have no right to love her. She deserves someone much better than you. Someone who can support her when she needed it." Deidara yelled, still not to break the glare away from the redhead.

"Deidara!" Itachi stood up in a second and grabbed Deidara's arm, nudging him in the ribs very hard.

"Shut the fuck up." Hidan hissed, not happy at the way Deidara was shouting at Sasori as well.

"You!" Konan stood up along with Itachi, glaring at Deidara and wanting to punch him so much.

Sasori widened his eyes by a few inches, tilting his head like an innocent child. His expression was filled with hurt and mostly confusion.

"You were right." He spoke in a whisper, adding swiftly behind. "But I never thought of wanting her to like me." He softly said, looking away from Deidara's stern gaze.

"I'm glad you thought that way." Deidara narrowed his eyes.

Sasori bent down and took his bag, carrying it onto his shoulder.

"I'm going off now." He mumbled, first time so unconfidently and upset in his whole life. He whirled around and swung open the door, closing it behind them.

0o0

"Fuck Fuck Fuck. Why are we doing the chasing while the rest of them are enjoying the air-conditioner in that room?" Hidan groaned.

"You look this way, I'll look that way." Pein gestured the direction and Hidan finally obeyed him for once.

Pein looked around down the empty street and was about to walk back to find Hidan when a figure caught his eyes.

The orange-haired noticed the redhead much better as he walked even closer towards him. He walked forward and sat down on the bus stop seat without an invitation, and he just sat there as he observed Sasori.

"You alright?" That's what Pein could only think of to say.

Sasori gave a glance and turned away, not bothering to reply even when he was suppose to respect him as a leader of the gang.

"When?" Pein asked. "When did you start?"

"I don't know." Sasori sighed, feeling flustered than ever.

At one point, he wanted her just to get out of his way and mind her own life. But today, Sasori could never ever thought about it.

He truly wanted her by his side.

"My duty was to get you back and make Deidara apologize, but I guess that's not very important for now." Pein stood up and dusted his jeans.

"You guys are friends for years. You almost fell out previously with him because of a girl." Pein stared at him, wanting Sasori to look up but he failed.

"Is it worth it?" Pein muttered, never moving his glance from the redhead.

Pein never expected an answer, so he decided to just leave him alone at the bench to think.

0o0

"Where the fuck he went? Didn't know that he's a fast runner." Hidan looked around again, putting his hands on his hips.

Pein gave a glance at the bus stop before looking at him. "We should give Sasori some time to think."

"Jashin, they fought for a girl years ago, didn't know history would repeat it fucking self." Hidan scratched his cheeks before looking at the orange-haired man.

"Whose side are you on?" Hidan muttered.

Pein gave a raised eyebrow for such serious question that Hidan would ask once-in-a-blue-moon. The orange-haired didn't respond but just shrugged.

"Talking to you is like talking to another Itachi, or a fucking orange rock with flowers on it." Hidan rolled his eyes.

"Then what about you?" Pein narrowed his eyes, a little offended about how he was compared to a rock.

His lavender eyes looked away and just stared at the bus that just leave the stop.

"Talking to you is like another Itachi, or a rabbit with pink adorable eyes like yours."

"Fuck off." Hidan glared at him.

Pein smirked, satisfied with his comment. "Make me."

0o0

"You are such an ass."

Hidan opened the door, allowing the leader to walk in first before he followed behind.

"Couldn't find him." Pein lied through his teeth. Everyone believed him of course, looking at his poker face given every single day; no one could understand what he was thinking sometimes.

Konan then turned towards the blonde. "Stop being so stubborn. You and Sakura are impossible." Konan argued.

Deidara fought an urge not to reply.

"You don't have to be so harsh on him though." Itachi said, taking on pity on the poor blonde, even though he somehow deserved it.

"Fuck that. Just because of the pinkhead and there's this mess?" Hidan muttered angrily. "What's with you people? Falling for a pinky, is that a new trend?"

"Just shut the hell up if you don't have any nice things to say." Kakuzu said angrily.

"If that's the case, I'll be fucking mute." Hidan spat.

"I'll have to thank Jashin for that." Kisame cut in.

"Guys." Pein looked at them with his face of wanting to kill anyone who interrupts the main conversation here. Everyone quieted down immediately.

Konan was pissed, meaning Pein would get annoyed, irking Itachi and making Kisame vexed as well. Hidan would start to curse and swear and Kakuzu would get a headache.

Everyone glared at Deidara. It was his entire fault for pissing the woman off.

0o0

"Kakuzu." Deidara called out before the bulky man could approach to the nearest car.

The man turned and observed Deidara trudging toward him while the blonde combed his soft hair with his fingers.

"What is it?" He drawled, giving a bored look.

"I have a small request yeah." He muttered, having a serious look on his face. It was rare for Deidara to be so serious at times. He was always cheerful and smiling everyday, no worries at all. But it didn't surprise him after all the mess going on previously.

"What is it?" Kakuzu repeated again, however, looking slightly more interested than previously.

"There's something important that I need your help." Deidara walked closer to him, making sure no one overheard both of them.

"It's about this little scheme that I've been planning for quite a while."

0o0

"You again?" Ino raised an eyebrow, looking Deidara up and down before giving a scoff.

"What do you want yeah?" The male blonde scowled unpleasantly, looking at Ino in disdain.

Deidara was standing outside of Sakura's school again, before he could sneak in, unfortunately, he was immediately found out with Ino's hawk eye.

The blonde tapped his feet in annoyance as he stood before the mirrored girl version of him. He argued about the fact she copied his hairstyle beforehand, but that wasn't the point for now. He had something more important to do and meeting Sakura was his point of objective why he was here.

"This is our school, that should be what I'm asking you." Ino jabbed her finger into Deidara's hard and firm chest.

"It isn't your business yeah."

A crowd soon gathered and it certainly brought up a lot of other people's attention. Ino scoffed at the amount of attention that was brought to them and she had no choice but to slip away and let him deal with it. Deidara couldn't help but wished the DeathNote notebook he got for his birthday present was actually usable.

"Stupid blondie." Deidara growled, slightly gasping for air as everyone started crowding around him.

"Waiting for Sakura again?"

"I'll help you call her."

"Oh my, he has some fine abs."

After a few minutes of pestering, Sakura finally tramped into the crowd, demanding to know what was going on there. But in only a second after breaking up the crowd, the blonde pulled her away from the throng as they took a quick stroll down the quiet and empty street, even though Sakura wasn't quite willing to. In a matter of time, they already lost all of stalkers that were following behind them all the way, thinking that Deidara actually didn't know.

"What are you doing? Let me go." Sakura finally managed to struggle from Deidara's tight grip as both of them halted at that spot.

Deidara turned abruptly, looking at Sakura as she was still rubbing her swollen wrist.

"What is wrong with you?" Sakura whined, oblivious to the serious expression in Deidara's eyes.

0o0

A few streets away from the two, there were two guys walking along the pavement. The street was quiet and only a few kids were playing football at the opposite field. Sasori observed them for a while before turning his head to the man beside him.

"Where are we going?" Sasori spoke, tilting his head to one side as he followed the tall man.

"You'll know soon." Kakuzu mumbled. "Just follow me."

0o0

"Sakura."

"What?" She still didn't look into his eyes, his unreasonable and bossy attitude made her hated him so much and now she was forced to someplace she wasn't familiar with.

A group of people was pushing her towards the entrance, saying there was a surprise for her, only to find this blonde hooligan, and was pulled to this empty street as though he had the authority to. She was supposed to report to her principle about a bullying incident that occurred yesterday. But now she's wasting her precious time with this man he despised in the middle of nowhere.

"I love you."

This definitely caught her attention. Her head jerked up and her bright green eyes widened. Both arms were back to her side and her mouth was wide open.

"Sakura, I love you!" Deidara grabbed both of her arms and shook her, as though she would hear even more clearly if he did.

This time, his voice sounded demanding and much more serious. His azure eyes didn't waver for at all. Furthermore, Sakura was actually expecting him to he broke down laughing at the next second, saying it was just a prank.

But he didn't, he still had that unsmiling and serious expression plastered on his face. She definitely didn't like how this was going.

"Let go of me!" Sakura yelled, pushing him away. Deidara took a step back as he gazed at Sakura, almost as though he was hurt.

"I… I don't like you!" She shouted, although there wasn't a need to since Deidara could hear it loud and clear.

"Why?" He muttered.

"What is wrong with you?" Sakura glared at him. "Your idiotic joke is going too far this time. Imagine if the girl you said this to really likes you? How would she feel!? Yet you're just toying with her feelings!" Sakura howled.

"I'm fucking serious." Deidara tried his best to give her the most solemn expression he could ever give.

There was a complete silence, for a couple of seconds they just stood there, neither of the moved nor spoke.

"I can't."

Deidara blinked, surprised that Sakura finally replied.

"If that's true, about you liking me. I'm sorry, but I can't like you." She looked away, feeling a little convince of what Deidara was telling her all the while.

"Why?" He demanded for the answer in split seconds after Sakura finished speaking.

Sakura swallowed her saliva, whirling around and was prepared to leave without saying anything but Deidara grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Why?" He shouted, his tone tainted in anger and fury.

Sakura glared at her feet, not willing to look at Deidara. Why should she admit to him? She can't say her feelings no matter what. She already promised herself that she would tell no one about her true feelings for anyone again.

…_She won't…_

"Why? Tell me why you can't accept me?"

_...Tell anyone…_

"Tell me!"

…_About her true feelings…_

"Why Sakura?"

"It's because I fell in love with Sasori!"

The grip on Sakura's wrist loosened immediately as Deidara's arm fell back to his side. Sakura started choking on her tears as she rubbed her eyes forcefully, preventing herself from crying any further.

"But I know it's impossible between us." Sakura sobbed, taking in a deep breath and holding back her tears. Deidara stood silently in front of her, allowing her to continue with her confession.

"Why would he like a stupid, childish, immature and loud pink-haired girl with weird taste and personality? If I were him, I would have chosen Konan or some other prettier girls that were out there waiting for him." Sakura took in a deep breath once again, refusing to let her emotions to control herself.

"This past few months being with him was the best time I've ever been in my life. Being my true self and to be able to speak up more than I usually do. I start to know what I want I truly want for myself instead of thinking for other people and allowing them to control me." Sakura shook her head vigorously, refusing to let her tears flow once more, but it still did.

"Two years ago." Sakura hiccupped. "I thought I fell in love with Sasuke." She said honestly, daring herself to look into Deidara's eyes. "But I was wrong, it was just infatuation." Sakura turned away from his gaze and stared at the traffic again.

"But I only realized that when I was with Sasori, because I found out that I've fallen in love with him instead."

"So I can't like you. I'm sorry." Sakura lowered her head and stared at her feet.

"I'm already in love with someone whom I can never be with…"

"Sakura."

The said girl froze, stopping her sobbing as she gradually lifted her head up. The blonde was staring ahead, his bright aqua eyes widened in shock, and Sakura could then confirm the voice that called out her name wasn't Deidara.

Yet it was so familiar… So soothing, just like a lullaby.

Little by little, the pinkette turned her head, facing the redhead who was standing a few meters away from her. Although her eyes were foggy from the amount of crying she had, she could still distinct the familiar chocolate-colored eyes, the eyes that she was mesmerized not too long ago.

It was particularly soft today. Instead of his stern gaze that was directed to anyone that was looking at him, it was actually more gentle and kind.

"Sasori…" She spoke in a whisper, her eyes broadened to the size of a ping-pong ball.

It was as if Deidara was forgotten when Sakura turned and faced the redhead standing before her. She seemed to have entered another world that only Sasori and herself existed, no one else.

The redhead frowned and slowly turned to face Kakuzu, but he was already nowhere in sight. He just turned back to his blonde best friend and gave him a questioning look instead.

Sasori didn't understand what was going on. He thought he was the smart one here, understanding his best friend inside out, but he didn't know Deidara would go this far…

'_This was what he was planning all along…'_

The blonde slowly stepped away and quietly nodded his head, whirling around and walked away. Now he understood what Deidara was planning all along.

Sasori's main focus was then turned to the pinkette standing before him.

'_How long had it been…' _Sasori stared confusing at the pinkette.

'_How much had he heard…' _Sakura couldn't help but wonder.

Sasori noticed the dried tear lines that were left on Sakura's cheek and his heart slightly ached. It was because of him that she cried, and it was because of him that Sakura had been in so much confusion lately. He wanted to walk over to wipe it off for her, but he didn't dare. But he didn't dare to walk away either. The redhead was afraid once he does, it might give Sakura the wrong thought.

He didn't _don't_ like her, it was just because he couldn't accept the fact that Sakura just admitted she liked him so easily…

For Sakura, she just wished she could bury herself in some deep hole. She wanted to run away, flee from the country and live in the middle of the desert or something, but her legs weren't doing what she wanted.

She was forced to stand before the guy she loved for so long, and she had to hear what he was going to say as well.

But she was already ready, to get rejected.

0o0

Behind the huge vending machine that was near the streets, Deidara was jabbing the buttons on his phone. He wasn't angry, but rather disappointed with his little game he was playing. He knew this was the ending he wanted, but he didn't know that it would affect him so much.

He brought the phone to his ear and waited for a moment.

"Kakuzu yeah?" Deidara called out after the receiver had picked up.

"They seem fine."

"I know that, I have eyes." Deidara muttered, as if he was venting his anger on his friend.

"Then are you?"

There was a pregnant silence between the two and Deidara just give a huge sigh.

"Don't tell anyone about this. Not even that annoying Konan even if she bribed you."

"That depends on the price." Deidara rolled his eyes, as if Kakuzu was able to see it.

"Please hit yourself in the face." The blonde snapped, hanging up the call.

He gave a last little peek behind the huge machine before deciding he shouldn't go on anymore. His role for this acting game was over.

No, he wasn't acting. It was real.

From the beginning, he wanted everyone to think that he liked Sakura and also forcing her to like him as well. Then, that would be the moment when Sakura would said her true feelings that was hidden deep inside her heart, lashing out all the reasons she couldn't like him because she fell for another.

That would be… Sasori.

That was what he originally planned out, and it ended well. But he didn't know he would actually fall in love, of all people, that insane girl which he swore he wouldn't fell for.

The rest would be up to Sasori from now on. But if his best friend messed the whole thing up himself, he swore he'll snatched Sakura back from him.

0o0

Deidara was sitting alone at the nearby bench he found after walking quite a distance away from the two. He wished to be alone as he switched off his phone and put on his earpiece, shutting himself from the world.

However, a certain rude blonde didn't want him to.

Deidara could felt one of the earpiece was forcefully pulled out from his ears, he flung opened his eyes, obviously displeased at the fact when he was listening to his favorite band.

"Hn. No wonder you couldn't hear even though I was shouting at you."

Deidara looked up, noticing two long and smooth legs standing before him. He recognized the voice and realized who was the one standing before him as Deidara straightened his posture, snatching his earpiece back from the girl's hand.

"I thought you were just another playboy I met in school." She spoke, both arms at her hips as she watched him tiredly reaching out for his pocket.

"What do you want? Again." He spat, taking out his Ipod and stopped the music.

Ino crossed her arm, looking at him with an unpleasant scowl. "I'm trying to comfort you. Please be grateful." She muttered, two of her turquoise eyes glaring at the blonde.

"I'm so touched yeah." Deidara faked a thankful voice before gazing up, noticing that Ino had already sitting beside him so gracefully without a sound. She could have been known as the silent killer if she's part of his gang back then.

"I followed you two; you and Sakura. Didn't know you intended to confess your love for her, only to get rejected and letting her to go with Sasori." She swung her silky hair. "Just like what I expected. I knew she love Sasori from the beginning."

"What's with you?" Deidara growled, glaring at the girl. He was currently having a tough time gaining back his composure and this stupid weird stalker had to rub salt into his wound.

"Oh don't be sad." Ino feigned a pitiful look, giving a small pat at Deidara's shoulder and sigh. "You'll find a better girl like me soon."

"You will never be better than Sakura." Deidara snorted, turning away and looked at a few children playing on the swing. The hand that was on his back slowly moved away and he could feel her leaning back on the bench again in silence.

He thought she would be whining about more stuff that would piss him off, but the silence between them surprised him. Deidara slowly turned back and looked over his shoulder, staring at the quiet blonde sitting there and rather upset with his words.

"I know I'll never be better than her."

He arched an eyebrow, looking wearily at her.

"I was just kidding yeah. You two are the best." He said, a little sarcastic in Ino's opinion.

"People always compare me with her. Her looks, her academic, her personality, her eyes, her hair, she got everything that is better than me. And I have to lose to her."

Deidara straightened his posture, leaning against his back on the bench just like what Ino did. He stared at her quietly, indicating for her to continue.

"I just like to make fun of her. Guess I did go too far this time." She sighed, looking ahead. "I didn't want to apologize because I always thought she knew me inside out. I'm a gossip queen. I can't control my mouth. But that's the way I am." She grabbed onto her skirt and the wrinkled lines start to form. "I'm not angry or upset at her. I want to be like her. She's strong, beautiful and kind. I'm just jealous of her. She's just better than me in everything."

She gave a small pause before continuing when Deidara didn't interrupt. "I don't know how exactly Sasori feel about Sakura, but I'm sure his heart must have wavered when he heard what Sakura had said. If he doesn't, he'll taste my fist." She growled, not knowing that the words that slipped out was actually because she was protective of her best friend.

"Maybe-" Deidara said, looking away politely as Ino started to wipe the tears that were forming in her eyes. "-We can exchange some tips." He stroked his chin wisely.

"You can tell me how to get rid of the love-sickness yeah." Deidara grinned at his plan while Ino slowly turned towards him as he gave a stupid smirk that made her smiled a little.

"And I can, well… share with you some sort of techniques to deal with your friendship problems."

* * *

Author's Note:

DeiIno moments? Well I like them so those flames would end up cooking some Ramen for my empty stomach.

Same reasons, been busy. Nope, I kinda lied XD Been watching DeathNote and I seriously love L. Seriously this guy need more love. Currently pairing him with Misa because I'm just this weird with cracks. But I love Sasori more than anything else, and even more love for SasoSaku.


	14. Cherry

Goodbye Apathy

"Y-You don't have to say anything!" Sakura raised her hand and covered Sasori's mouth when he approached her.

"What-efwehuicn?" He mumbled behind her hand.

"I get it. I've learnt my lesson. Twice already." Sakura whimpered, staring at the ground with her teary eyes.

"I don't mind one-sided love! I'm just afraid to get rejected! You know what I mean?" Sakura blabbered.

"I don't need you to like me back or anything. Just… Just don't be so cruel and say those stuff like you did when we first interacted. No evil words for today, alright?" She sniffed.

He just stared at her as a tear slid down from her cheeks. It made him real mad, boiling mad. He wasn't furious at anyone or Sakura. He was angry at himself for not knowing the truth about Sakura's feeling earlier.

He thought he was having a one-sided love as well. He didn't want to hear any harsh words from Sakura too, just like how he had receive it from the girl both Deidara and Sasori once loved. That's why he didn't dare to make a move. But Deidara always challenged himself and always made the move first. That's why… That's why Sasori always lose to Deidara in relationship matters…

But, Sasori never thought that the rosette would love him back too. Not in a million years.

"Sakura." He mumbled, yet his voice was suddenly so loud and clear behind Sakura's hand.

"Please don't! Please-"

"Sakura look at me." He muffled, slight annoyed when Sakura still refused to listen to him.

"No! I don't want to!"

Sasori grabbed onto her wrist and pulled it away from his mouth, leaving both of their hand hanging in the air. He then took his another hand and grasped onto Sakura's chin, forcing Sakura to look up at him.

"Sakura." He frowned deeply as Sakura was shutting her eyes, not wanting to look at him at all.

"You had no idea. Haruno Sakura."

The pinkette slowly opened her teary emerald eyes as it stared back into Sasori's chocolate-brown ones. She wanted to look away, but she knew if she did, Sasori would make her look back at him.

And that's something unpleasant to do…

"I hated you-"

She gasped inwardly, her heart cringed and her stomach churned. If only she could turn deaf at the moment. She didn't want to hear all these words again. Not again.

"-at the start."

She blinked.

"You kept bugging me non-stop, and I hated the fact that I always had to see pink wherever I go. Your pink hair is irking me, and it's very annoying."

She's hurt. She definitely hurt. Sakura started to struggle from Sasori's firm grip and wanted to run away. Perhaps leaving town to hide from such mockery she perhaps didn't deserve. Or maybe, living with camels in the desert and learn how to drink water from cactus. This idea sounded even better than hearing all these words from the one she loved so much.

But her plan didn't seem to work when she couldn't even move from the tight grip and the menacing glare from Sasori's eyes. She frightened, she was very scared and terrified.

However, in that second when she blinked away her tears, his threatening eyes that were glaring at her softened, leaving no trace of it being once so harsh and intimidating. She blinked again, not believing what she was looking at.

Instead of those cold eyes she despised, it was more of… emotions, emotions that she never seen before. No, not the ones she seen when he heard that his grandmother was dying. His eyes showed almost the same emotion like the day she found him under the rain, the ones that he gave before he went up to hug her.

However, it was more intensive, happier, delightful and gratified, and somewhere between there, there was a huge sign that he was in love.

"I hated you before." He sighed, looking down before looking at her again. "But now I hated myself for sticking around with you so much, only making myself falling in love with you and suffer because I knew, I couldn't be with you even when I wanted so much for it to happen."

He could only manage a small innocent smile. "I thought that you deserve someone better." He seemed to be deep in thought before returning his attention to Sakura.

"Perhaps that Uchiha or that whiskers blonde brat."

Sasori afforded a small smile again, looking away from Sakura's shocked gaze in mentioning Sasuke and Naruto. "I mean, why would a random, hyper, nice, and naïve girl like you, like someone who is dark, emotionless and heartless guy like me?"

Sasori slowly loosened the grip on Sakura's wrist, letting both of his arm settled back to his side, still looking elsewhere and not daring to look at Sakura. "I once swore I wouldn't love anyone anymore. Emotions are completely useless. It just makes someone weak and losing control." He exhaled a huge sigh, slowly turning his brown-colored eyes towards the pinkette.

"But then, only you proved me wrong. Only you did. And I got to admit…"

"You won." He glanced away again while clearing his throat. Sakura noticed that his cheeks were starting to tint pink.

"You won my heart."

"…"

"…"

There was a moment of silence when she knew, right at that moment she knew, he had admitted. Not by using the common three words that everyone used to express their love for each other, but he used it his way, and Sakura understood every single word he was saying to her.

She finally changed him, all these while. She didn't know at all, and she always thought she was letting her principal down for failing this one hard part of the mission.

Goodbye to his indifference huh?

"One-sided love?" Sakura grinned, rubbing her dried tear lines away quickly.

Sasori turned his neck so quickly that he swore it could have snapped into two. He was face to face with the smiling Sakura who had already wiped her tears away. It was a different smile that she had whenever she saw her friends or teachers. How to describe it?

It's more… bright and radiant. If there's a competition on who was the happiest in the world, Sakura could easily earn that medal with that smile plastered on her face.

"I…I'm just afraid of getting rejected, and I almost thought I had to suffer that miserable pain again." Sakura's smile slowly faded away, slightly disappointing Sasori due to the fact he preferred her smile more than anything.

"I only admit my feelings because I was desperate. If Deidara didn't force me to, I don't think I'll ever say it. And then I'll never know what were yours too." Sakura bit her lips as she thought how terrible that would be.

"One-sided love huh?" She repeated, followed by a soft giggle coming behind her cupped hands.

"I thought love only happens in fairytales and TV shows." She gave the bright smile again. "But you proved me wrong. Only you did. And I got to admit…" Sakura smiled and pressed her hand over her chest, near to where her heart was suppose to be.

"S-Sakura?"

"I love you too." She smiled.

Sasori's widened his eyes as he quickly glanced away and stared at a signboard near a tall tree that stated no littering. He didn't know what to react, but if he didn't act fast, he could have lost the chance just like what Sakura had just said.

No, he couldn't afford to lose it. If it was his pride and stubbornness that always made him lose everything, why don't he just throw all of it away?

"L-let's start all again, don't we?" He looked away in embarrassment as he combed his red and messy hair through his fingers.

"Alright!" She put both of hands behind her back excitedly.

"Ah… Sakura! W-Would you like to go out with me?" He mumbled, slightly hesitant. His cheeks was starting to burn up and blushing. This was the first time doing this and asking a girl out, so blushing and feeling so embarrassed was something that everyone could forgive him for.

Sakura giggled as she started chortling behind the back of her hands.

"W-What's so funny? We are supposed to start over." Sasori grumbled.

"Alright." She stopped her laughing as she tiptoed towards Sasori's lips and gave a kiss. Never in his life did he widen his eyes so big before.

And all he could see were stars. Stars were all flying around above his head even after Sakura had already stopped and giving him the only smile that Sasori could say it was perfect.

"Let's go out then!" Sakura grabbed the dazed redhead's arm. "Watch some movies!"

0o0

"And that's the end of the Graduation Ceremony!" Tsunade said into the mike.

All the graduating students, which were from Sakura's batch, were all screaming and shouting. Some had already started signing and drawing on their uniform with permanent markers. They would never be coming back to this school to hand up that monster everyday; homework.

However, the fun hadn't really started for this particular blonde. She had been all flustered up and she wasn't even listening to the graduating speech at all. She was still debating whether she should do it or not.

But since she would not be even seeing all these dickheads and assholes ever again, she might as well go ahead and do it.

As she stomped towards the small flight of stairs, she grabbed the mike from the principal's hand without even asking for it. But before everyone noticed what she had done, she had started screaming into the mike, almost bursting everyone's eardrum and shocking the shit out of their life.

"I'm sorry!"

After the sound system quieted down and everyone had managed to calm down, Ino started her own daring speech to the some group of people she barely knew, and some group of people she knew inside and out.

"Well, I'm here to apologize." She cleared her throat.

"To apologize to Haruno Sakura for my bitchy attitude."

If a pin were to drop, it would have equivalent to a meteorite crashing the earth.

"This is the truth. Yes, I'm jealous of you because of everything you do were always perfect, other than your weird pink hair and that huge forehead or yours! Look at yourself Forehead. You have the crazy good-looking hunk dating you and those crazy and remarkable grades of yours. Yes, I'm crazily jealous of you. I don't need your forgiveness, but I just want you to know that I truly mean it in the bottom of my heart."

"I really treasure the friendship we once had!"

Hinata was tearing up already. She wanted to scream too, but it would definitely be very irrelevant for such situation.

"If you are willing to give me one more chance. I swear I would have turn everything right." Ino sighed into the mike before pointing at the boy who was standing at the back of the hall.

"And you, that fat ass over there. I demand you to delete the video in your camera right now. Or I'll smash your little brain." She growled. The boy immediately tossed his camera into the trashcan without even arguing.

There was just silence and that was what she expected. She ended her speech with a loud "Thank you and sorry for the interruption!" before handing the mike back to Tsunade as she started stepping down the stairs. And only when she reached the ground, she receive a broad hug from the person she least expected in the world.

"_What do you mean?" Ino raised an eyebrow as she straightened her posture and glared at the man in front of her. "You don't understand m-"_

"_Sakura do. She wants the friendship back dearly. Even if she doesn't show it to her best friends, I can see it."_

_Ino crossed her arms. "Are you like, complimenting yourself?" She muttered in disdain._

_Sasori shrugged and gave a smirk. "She may seems happy, but I knew that without you back as her best friend, she can never be truly happy. And I don't want that to happen." _

"_You do realize that you are talking quite a lot, huh? Pretty boy." Ino gritted._

_Sasori ignored the remark as he opened the exit door and glanced behind his shoulder. "It would be worth it. I can see you two treasures the friendship, it just depends who will be the one who admits at fault. And I'm pretty sure you know who was really at fault here back then." _

_And the door just closed behind him._

"Sakura…" Ino stared at the pinkette who was hugging her so ever tightly.

"You little pig! You know it's rude when you called others fat when you are one too!" Sakura cried.

"Sakura…" Ino repeated, her eyes softened.

There was a clap from somewhere in the midst of students, and gradually; all the students and teachers started clapping as well. It was weird for them to clap when Ino was just confessing such a silly thing. Perhaps it was their friendship that was worth the cheering and clapping.

Ino smiled as she embraced back. How long had it been since she hugged her best friend? Ino didn't know, but she was sure that Sakura was damn lucky to have such a sweet and understanding boyfriend by her side.

0o0

"That's brave for you." Sasuke smirked slightly, looking at Ino who was standing by the railing on the rooftop. In order to escape from the fan girls, he had managed to slip away with the help of Suigetsu and ended up here, not knowing that Ino had taken the place.

"That isn't brave, that's-" Ino gritted her teeth when she didn't have any words to describe what was it. "Tha-That's none of your business." She scoffed.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be partying with Sakura?"

"Came here to clear some thoughts." She muttered, not even understanding why was she even replying.

"I like you."

"What are you talking?" Ino turned and raised an eyebrow before it turned into an ominous frown. "Don't bother flirting cause I won't like you, asshole."

"How does that count as flirting if the other party doesn't respond to it?" Oh sure, Sasuke sure liked how this was going.

"Oh you asshole!" Ino yelled. She's not in the mood for jokes, yet this arrogant bastard had to ruin her peace.

"You know what? I hate you." She sneered.

Sasuke leaned against the railing as he stared up into the sky, smirking like he never did before.

"You know what? I hate you too."

0o0

"You look beautiful!" Ino clapped her hands as Konan had finished putting on Sakura's make up.

"You'll get your chance too, right Hinata?" Sakura childishly nudged the blushing girl as she started playing with her fingers too.

"Five more minutes Sakura." Konan gave a smile while Sakura just nodded and smiled. Konan sure was happy for Sakura's happiness, but she was still feeling troubled.

Troubled and worried if the guys could ever solve the problem they were facing now…

"Stay calm and say it." Itachi gave a stern look.

"Go on, you can do this! Two words!" Deidara gave the look that he had whenever he was anticipating his favorite soccer team to score a goal.

"I-I- Foo..." Sasori blinked and gave a huge sigh.

"Seriously you fu-" Hidan took in a deep breathe. He had already sworn to Jashin that he would be a good boy and not say bad words for today. "Come on Shorty, just say it already. You have like three more minutes."

"I told you to practice it yesterday, didn't I. Knowing you, you can never say this two words properly due to the fact when a gorgeous babe will be standing beside you." Kisame mocked.

"This isn't the time." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes.

Pein went forward and grabbed onto Sasori shoulder and shook him, surprising the redhead and the rest.

"Say it." He growled, glaring at him with his scariest eyes ever. "I command you."

Everyone went silent and they knew if Sasori didn't say it properly, the leader would definitely tear that fine-looking suit apart.

"I-I do."

0o0

From being an indifferent and anti-social man to be like this, it takes a lot of hard work, and it nearly took his friends forever to change his attitude. His grandmother tried too, but she took a toll and died.

Anyway-

Indifference means having the lack of interest, concern, or sympathy towards something or someone. Another meaning from the Thesaurus would be _Apathy_

When someone is being indifferent towards you, he/she most likely didn't mean he/she dislikes you. It means he/she hates you.

But if something or someone could have triggered his/her emotions, you may find his/her true inner self. You might not regretted that very day you made your choice in making friends with him/her, since he/she could be the one who would change your life too.

But if he/she continues being so indifferent towards you, bother him/her till no end. Make his/her life suffer and force him/her to be friends with you. That would solve the problem.

It wasn't easy to do it at first, but perseverance and encouragement from a fierce and scary principal can help.

And that would be the end of Haruno Sakura's: How to make someone not so indifferent anymore Chapter 1.

It wasn't an easy task for a 16 years old Haruno Sakura back then. From the start, Sakura thought she would be having trouble facing a handsome yet heartless, cold, rude and a criminal redhead. But then, everything turns out pretty fine in the end, since researchers says that pinkette are usually the best problem solvers in the world!

Yes, yes. But it must be a natural pinkhead though.

"I thought your hair is dyed?" Sasori raised an eyebrow as he stared at the small little baby in the cot. It had grown little strands of pink hair on the head.

And really, really lucky, the baby was a girl.

"Are you mocking me?" Sakura stuck out her tongue before softening her gaze and glanced at her newborn baby. Sasori had taken the rest of the day off to visit his wife and baby at the hospital.

Deidara, Hidan and the rest dropped by while Sasori was still at work. They used the chance to tease the redhead as much as they could before he arrived at the scene and murder them.

Naruto, Kiba and Hinata knew their manners and know when to stay out of trouble as they leave the job for Sasuke to get Ino out of the ward and let Sasori and Sakura had their peace. It took that poor Uchiha about half an hour to do so.

"What should we name her?" Sasori trudged towards the cot, his lips stretched into a small smile as he stared at the fragile and little baby that was curled up in her own pink blanket.

"Something that must be related to pink." Sakura said proudly as she rest her head one the pillow that Sasori had helped her fluffed.

"Cherry?" Sasori pondered for a few seconds before saying out his suggestion.

"Nope."

"Pinky? How about that?"

"… I'll stick to Cherry for now."

End

* * *

Author's note:

End. Yes, you see that right. END. The shortest ending ever.

Shall not end it with such emotional crap, I'm not used to it XD So, I guess that's it! Thanks for sticking with this story for so many months. I had a lot of fun and I'm really really thankful for all the countless support by you guys. :DD

-OmgitsPocky


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